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Issa Rae has revealed that naming her Insecure character after herself was a bad move. During a recent interview with TODAY, she explained, “The script was called ‘Untitled,’ the show was called Untitled for a very long time. 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. Fine, it is what it is.”
Issa then said, “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. So even when people talk mess about the character, it’s still me and my name. It was the worst decision I ever made.”
She also spoke on fans’ effort to bring Lawrence — played by Jay Ellis, back to the show, saying, “They started a petition. They started an online petition. The show hasn’t even aired yet. It has over 10,000 signatures for us to bring him back on the show, and it’s like…we finished it already [laughs]. Sorry. And it’s also like, if the petition works, they’re going to bring it to HBO and HBO’s gonna be like, ‘Guys, forget your creative vision, 10,000 people want this character back so go re-shoot the season.’ And are they going to pay for it? Where’s the money going to come from?”
Issa also spoke on Barack and Michelle Obama being fans of the show. She added, “Barack Obama complimented the soundtrack, complimented Yvonne Orjiwho plays Molly and I about being creative Black women. And then a year later, I went to see Michelle Obama speak in Boston, and Tiffany Haddish and I stood in line to say ‘Hey!’ And Michelle had to tell me she didn’t approve of how our finale made her feel. She was like, ‘That was terrible. I was so mad!’ She said Sasha and Malia put her onto the show! It was just incredible.”
