Issa Rae's skills of being an actress, producer, writer and director have not gone unnoticed in her most beloved HBO series, Insecure.
The 32-year-old recently hit up Miami’s Art Basel where she was hosting Bombay Sapphire’s eighth-annual Artisan Series, a competition to discover multicultural artists. Complex was on the scene to chat with her about Insecure season three, succeeding in her industry as a woman of colour and what made her have to step away for Twitter for a hot moment due to fans erupting over a moment in her shows season two.
"There is nothing that fuels me more than being doubted. That’s my drive; that’s when I become unstoppable," Issa says on the topic of dealing with sexism and racism. "Like, “Oh you think I can’t do this?” or “Oh, I’m beneath you?” Well, I’m just going to prove you wrong. It’s very much a silent fight, and I’m just like, “Bring it on.”"
As for season three of her show, she says the episodes are not meant to shock viewers as they are just simply stories that are real-life situations the writers have gone through, with added effects - such as the episode where Lawrence has a threesome with two girls he met a grocery store. When it comes to certain topics, Issa wants Insecure to stay relevant to viewers when they are hopefully watching years later. "Bottom line is, I just don’t want any Trump stench on this show, period. But things outside of that, anything that feels culturally or socially relevant at this moment, you’re going to see it in the show," she says.
As for her Twitter blow-up moment, season two episode six killed her mentions when the episode showed her on-again, off-again man friend Daniel ejaculating in her eye.
"A thousand percent the cum in face episode for just so many reasons," she said when asked. "That was just one of those times where I was like, I’m going to take a break this week."
