Even in the midst of a pandemic Issa Rae sure knows how to throw a party!
Much like the rest of our lives, Sunday, the 2020 Emmy Awards broadcast relied pretty heavily on video conferencing as host Jimmy Kimmel tried to make the best of a bizarre and unprecedented ceremony.
But as usual one bright spot in the sobering reminder of our current COVID-19 crisis was Rae, who cleverly assembled her cast and crew to gather at the otherwise empty SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. Unlike others who sat at home or in hotel rooms waiting to see if their name was called, the Insecure creator and show family seemed to be having the times of their lives.
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“Emmys celebration in Inglewood with the homies. Wouldn’t have it any other way,” the 35-year-old wrote in the caption which accompanied a post that seemingly shows her Crip-walking in her designer gown. “Thank you to @sofistadium and @amprgroup for letting us have the stadium to ourselves!”
During the actual broadcast, Rae, a nominee for both acting and producing the HBO series, appeared in a pre-recorded segment to share an inspiring story about a disastrous pitch meeting earlier in her career.
“He was like, ‘Yeah, it’s about this Black woman and her Black woman problems, hilarious’ and I was like, ‘That’s not what it’s about, but okay,'” she said of her run in with a white producer who clearly didn’t understand the appeal of her popular Awkward Black Girl web series.
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“He was like, ‘Yeah but, you know the Black audience want to see familiar faces so you might need to switch up the characters.”
She was incredulous over what was being told to her.
“I remind you this is an executive who is not Black telling me what Black people like,” she continued, visibly still taken aback by this unnamed producer’s gaul. “It just became very clear to me that he didn’t get the show and I remember just fuming in that meeting like why does he get to tell me what gets to be on TV? Why does he get to tell me what people like me like to see? I’m here, I’m telling you what I want to see! I made it.”
The rest as we know, is television history. Rae ended the anecdote by cackling and informing viewers, “One of us got fired.” Clearly it wasn’t her.
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