by: LaCrystal Parker
Balenciaga coat, bodysuit, and leggings.
(Image credit: Chrisean Rose)
Actor, producer and writer Issa Rae is on the cover of Marie Claire's November Power issue.
Photographed by Chrisean Rose @chriseanrose / hair @felicialeatherwood / MUA @joannasimkin / styling @jaredellner / manicurist @eriishizu an all black production. Rae was interviewed by award-winning editor and multi-platform storyteller Cori Murray Cori Murray (@corimurray). I can see why they call it the power issue! Issa Rae, really opened up about the power of being in control of your own destiny, paving the way for others and how the strike really affected her. The interview is a must-read! Very inspirational and MUST READ!
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This is important to Rae; being the change.
Since her childhood, she’s wanted to see more people of color on-screen. “I felt underserved for a period of my life coming up,” she says. “When you’re a little girl thinking about performing for an audience, all you think about is, ‘Oh, my family,’ and ‘Oh, my friends.’ I don’t think I’ve ever escaped that. They are, I guess, the hypothetical people that I think about. That is my core audience and theirs are the stories that I’m mostly interested in. she’s wanted to see more people of color on-screen
The Strike
Although the continued SAG-AFTRA strikes prohibit Rae from speaking about future projects she’s starring in, she’s back in development mode for Hoorae’s upcoming programming slate. There are currently seven projects in various stages of treatment, script and pre-production, and she’s taking stock in what a future career on-screen and off will look like. “The strike was devastating. I’ve been building [a project] for five years and now it’s gone,” Rae says, matter-of-factly. “On the [entertainment] business side, we lost some employees. That really, really sucks. But this industry is changing so much. For me it’s like, ‘Okay, but what now?’ I know that executives and networks aren’t going to be as receptive as they were to Black focused content. I’m not pivoting, but I’m just trying to be more strategic in terms of the stories that I tell and maximizing our impact.”
BEING IN CONTROL OF HER DESTINY
In other words, Rae is diversifying. She’s been hanging around Hollywood long enough to know that it can be uncertain. “I only have a foresight of what isn’t going to be. There’s certain things that I want to take advantage of outside of the industry just because I feel like [the industry] doesn’t know what it wants to be, it’s in flux. And there are no innovators anymore…I want to be able to have control of my own destiny.”
(Image credit: Chrisean Rose)
(Image credit: Chrisean Rose)
(Image credit: Chrisean Rose)
(Image credit: Chrisean Rose)