Issa Rae covers the latest issue of Cosmopolitan to promote Insecure and The Lovebirds (which will be coming out this month). I love Issa and all that she represents, but I also feel like people are putting too much pressure on her, and she’s putting too much pressure on herself! This Cosmo piece deals with that issue, that there’s an expectation that she must be all things to all (black) people, and that she’s perhaps internalized that and now believes it herself. When really, she simply reminds me of Mindy Kaling a lot – someone who mostly writes and creates her own projects, works as a producer to get stuff made, and someone is more focused on comedy, romance and very human dramas as opposed to “superheroes” and “explosions.” Anyway, you can read the Cosmo piece here. Some highlights:

She loves Spider-Man: “That’s my boo, since third grade. I always say that if I ever got a tattoo, it would be a Spider-Man tattoo.” For the record: Spidey—specifically the ’90s cartoon version where he was a college kid juggling grades, a part-time job, and relationships—was her first love, before he was everyone else’s. “I feel like a hipster, like, ‘Spider-Man was ours!’ And now he’s for everybody.”

On the fourth season of Insecure: “Someone asked me if I felt pressure about this season coming on, and up until now, I hadn’t. This f*cking virus changed everything. Most of my mentions have been like, ‘Drop it, girl, stop playing, drop all the episodes at once’—like I’m HBO. And I’m like, What the f*ck? We’re literally still mixing and editing.”

On the pandemic: “We’re being forced to stop and just reevaluate, be creative in our approach. Humans are resilient. We’re going to figure this sh*t out.”

On fame: “The bigger you are and the more people know your name, the more people you’re stumbling in front of.”

Feeling like she fooled people: “It almost just feels like I fooled people. Ha, ha, you put me on a magazine cover.” Also, in an industry that wasn’t built for black creatives to have long-term success, she worries how long her “window” will last. “The blessing is like, Okay, I can for sure make my own opportunities, and that’s fun. But I also want to be able to…I want to deserve to be here, and that’s part of what keeps me up at night.”

On her legacy: “I want to be a pop culture staple—a black pop culture staple. I want to have an impact on my community. Everything I’ve done has been for—and in thinking of—black people, and I don’t take this moment lightly. I want to do right by us, at the end of the day. It’s presumptuous because, like, nobody’s counting on me… Nobody’s like, ‘She got to do it!’”

[From Cosmopolitan]

“Everything I’ve done has been for—and in thinking of—black people, and I don’t take this moment lightly. I want to do right by us, at the end of the day. It’s presumptuous because, like, nobody’s counting on me… Nobody’s like, ‘She got to do it!’” She’s half-right? I think Issa is comfortable having a lot of eyes on her because she believes in herself and knows she can deliver. But I would hope that in the year of lord and savior Beyonce 2020 that the pressure isn’t that huge, and that nothing is on a razor’s edge – the (white) space has opened up to the point where Issa isn’t standing out there alone, with no safety net, with no support. The thing about worrying that her “window” might close… she’s a creator. She’s a writer. If sh-t doesn’t work out, she will be able to create another show. I know it’s not that easy, but I have faith.

Photos courtesy of Ruth Ossai for Cosmopolitan.