Thursday, March 28, 2024

Issa Rae on the ‘One-slot’ Rule and ‘Female Renaissance’ in Hollywood

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Issa Rae says she’s proud to be part of the group of innovative female content creators who are helping to amplify women’s voices in film and television.

“I do think there’s a renaissance in so many different ways,” the actress said at NFL’s Women’s Summit on Friday. “We have a newfound power, a newly rediscovered power. We’re like, ‘…We can speak up, and we can get stuff done, and we can make a change, and we can reclaim our stories.”

Adding, ”It just seems so much more attainable (for women) because you are seeing a shift behind the scenes.”

“Insecure,” which Rae created, produces and stars in, earned her two Golden Globe nominations and will return for its third season this year. It’s based on her hit web series, “The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl.”

She said going from YouTube to HBO “was a long journey of brokenness. The first episode cost me $25.”

diversity in hollywood, black womanhood

Rae launched a Kickstarter campaign to keep the series alive and Pharrell Williams funded its second season. But once Hollywood became interested in it, she couldn’t commit to some of the ideas.

“I had opportunities to take ‘Awkward Black Girl’ to television really early on for big networks, but for them, it was about shifting it and changing it to fit their standards, and that never appealed to me. I was not in a rush,” she said.

Rae was one of the women who spoke at NFL’s third Women’s Summit held, days ahead of Super Bowl 52. When asked by Maria Menounos about Hollywood’s golden rule of having one opportunity for a minority actor or a woman on a project, Rae said, “The one slot thing is ridiculous but there’s truth to it.”

Continuing, “Because I think a lot of executives, people who put stuff on television have that mentality of, ‘Oh, we have our black show, so sorry. Maybe try NBC.’ And that’s really discouraging in a way because there’s so many stories to tell.”

In related news, Issa Rae recently inked a development deal with HBO to produce more content like “Insecure” for the network.

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