Issa Rae Was Told To Include White Characters In Her Shows For ‘People To Care’

Issa Rae

Issa Rae Was Told To Include White Characters In Her Shows For ‘People To Care’

Issa Rae is opening up about advice she received from a coworker that could have changed the dynamic of her hit shows.

While gracing the cover of Mic magazine, Issa Rae, 36, revealed that she was told to add white characters to her shows. 

Issa Rae

She explains,

“From the jump in creating the show, it was put in my mind that you had to have a white character to be a bridge, and for people to care, for it to get awards, for it to be considered worthy of the television canon.” 

Rae says her former colleague stated,

“Girl, if you want this s–t to set off to the next level, you got to put a white character in there, then white people will care about it, then NPR is going to write about your s–t and it’ll blow up.”

Issa Rae admits to taking the advice and adding a white character to her YouTube series, ‘Awkward Black Girl,‘ and again for ‘Insecure.’

However, for Insecure, Issa Rae didn’t follow suit for long, as Lisa Joyce, who played the character, Frieda, was written off after the third season.

Rae says she started to ‘actively resist’ adding white characters to her show. She said,

“I realized, ‘Oh my gosh, our show is just about black characters now in the most refreshing way.”

The fifth and final season of Insecure will premiere on Oct. 24th on HBO. For these characters Issa Rae said,

Do you agree with the advice Issa Rae received? Tell us your thoughts in the comments. 

[VIA]