One could certainly say that Issa Rae made some pretty smart decisions over the years. She came up with the idea of “Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl,” and that led to her show “Insecure,” which of course turned out to be a hit.
But there was one bad decision she made along the way, and that was deciding to use her own name Issa for the her “Insecure” character.
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Rae said she never intended to go with the name, but it was used after she forgot to think of another before filming began.
“The script was called ‘Untitled,’ the show was called ‘Untitled’ for a very long time,” she told the “Today” show’s Hoda Kotb. “So I was like, well, I’ll figure out the character name later. Obviously I’m playing it, so I’ll make it my name. And by the time we were shooting it, the character’s name was still Issa, and I didn’t think about it.”
She then said that because fans are so tuned into to Issa on the show, they feel they know the real Issa and chastise her about the character.
“It’s a lot of people thinking they know you, they know your life, they know the decisions you made and it’s hard for people to separate because it’s my name,” Rae explained. “So even when people talk mess about the character, it’s still me and my name. It was the worst decision I ever made.”
Rae then talked about Issa’s ex-boyfriend on the show Lawrence, played by Jay Ellis and how fans created a petition to get him back, which she joked about.
“It’s like we finished it already,” she said. “Also, if the petition works, right? HBO is going to be like ‘Forget your creative vision. Ten-Thousand people want this character back right now so go and re-shoot the season?’ And are they going to pay for it? Where’s the money going to come from?”
It was back in April that fans first got word that Ellis wouldn’t be returning for season three of the show when he spoke to Angie Martinez.
Then months after, during an interview with Vulture, Rae and “Insecure” show runner Prentice Penny said they wanted Issa’s story on the show to be realistic and since Lawrence is out of her life, there was no reason to keep creating story lines for him.
You can catch the premiere of “Insecure’s” third season on Sunday, August 12 at 10:30 p.m. EST. You can also watch Rae’s interview on the “Today” show below.
