Here are some other takeaways. Watch the full conversation here.

The acting bug came early, but fame has been tough

Ms. Wiley knew from age 10 that she wanted to act, to “tell stories” and “to be onstage,” she said. It was seeing Angela Bassett that turned the dream into something attainable. “For me, it was saying, ‘If she can do, I can do it,’” Ms. Wiley said.

She was two years out of college — she went to Temple University then transferred to Juilliard — when she landed her role on “Orange,” though she kept her bartending job just to be safe.

But fame has been tough, she said. “It’s been a journey for me of whether I’m going buck against that, which is what I did in the beginning,” she said, or embrace it. “What I needed to do was accept it and know that I am big enough for it.”

Her advice to those finding their path is advice she got from her father, who like her mother was a Baptist pastor: “Do what makes your heart sing.”

Feminism: ‘It’s very simple’

When asked what feminism means to her, Ms. Wiley said that, to put it simply, a feminist is “someone who believes in the social and economic equality of the sexes.”

“I want to be seen as a full human being,” she said. “We just want to be equal, we want the same rights, we want the same things, we want to be able to reach our full potential, we want the same opportunities. It’s not that hard, it’s very simple.”