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Yvonne Orji on the lasting influence of ‘Insecure’: ‘Our show was able to allow executives and creatives to see what is possible’

Yvonne Orji.Getty images Insider spoke with Yvonne Orji ahead of “Insecure” ending after five seasons on Sunday. “Our show was able to allow executives and creatives to see what is possible,” she said. ‘The amount of times ‘Insecure’ is referenced in a pitch meeting is outstanding,'” Oriji added. When Amazon debuted “Harlem,” it was immediately dubbed the new “Insecure” by critics, writers, and fans on social media. In reality, there is very little that links the two shows.”Harlem,” a 10-episode comedy series about the lives of four Black thirty-somethings in New York City starring Megan Good and Whoopie Goldberg, created by “Girls Trip” writer Tracy Oliver, is a much less ambitious show constructed around familiar narrative templates that, in fact, resemble comedies like “Sex in The City” and “How I Met Your Mother” more than “Insecure.”This brand of classification is indicative of Hollywood’s shallow ideas of identity and politics as the comparison is really a matter of race and gender. (Boots Riley’s “Sorry To Bother You” was called the new “Get Out,” for example.)Still, in the case of the 30-minute, female-led-and-created Black television comedy, it is difficult to create any kind of commentary without mentioning “Insecure.”Issa Rae and Yvonne Orji on HBO’s “Insecure.”Merie W. Wallace/HBOWhen Issa Rae debuted HBO’s “Insecure” in 2016, she became the first Black woman to create and star in a scripted series for a premium cable channel. She’s the second Black woman to do it in primetime TV, behind Wanda Sykes, who created “Wanda At Large” for Fox in 2003.Across its five-season run, the show, which tells the story of Issa — a former drifter turned community organizer (played by Issa Rae) — and Molly — an accomplished, romantically doomed, well-to-do lawyer (played by Yvonne Orji) has picked up a slew of historic awards and nominations.When the final episode of “Insecure” airs next week, on Boxing Day, it will mark the end of a unique and influential era of Black television and that’s not lost on its stars, including Yvonne Orji.”Our show was able to allow executives and creatives to see what is possible; to be able to tell a truthful, undiluted story about the Black experience in a way that has no trauma associated with it,” Orji told Insider when speaking about the lasting influence “Insecure” has created. “I hope it opens up doors for other kinds of shows that can lend themselves to that experience as well. We would love to see something similar to ‘Insecure’ but set in XYZ or similar to ‘Insecure’ but focused on this.” Jay Ellis, Issa Rae, Yvonne Orji and Prentice Penny at the launch of “Insecure” season 4.Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for HBOOrji, who picked up her first Emmy nomination in 2020 for her role as Molly, continued to recount some of the first-hand anecdotes she has heard about the influence “Insecure” has had in the creation of new television comedies, including the story of one television executive who revealed that the show is often referenced in pitch meetings at her network.”There’s a tweet by an executive I think after our first or second episode, she said, ‘The amount of times ‘Insecure’ is referenced in a pitch meeting is outstanding,'” Oriji said. “She said she hears it all the time. It’s like ‘an “Insecure” meets…’ or ‘it’s like “Insecure” but with…’ and I was like wow that’s pretty awesome because you know, I can’t speak for Issa but I know when we were making the show in the inception we were just hoping we get a full-season order.””We were just trying to do a show but Issa is so specific about what she wants south L.A. to feel like, what she wants the music to feel like,” Orji continued, “And so, I think her specificity of vision really curated and created a beautiful experience.” Molly and Andrew on HBO’s hit series “Insecure.”Merie W. Wallace/HBOAlongside its hyperspecific portrait of Los Angeles and Black millennial relationships (both familial and romantic), “Insecure” is best known for its rabid social media following. After every Sunday night viewing, Twitter, in particular, is dominated by discussions about the show. Oriji said that it was this fierce social media fandom along with one weekend at Essence Festival — an annual music festival held in New Orleans — that helped her realize “Insecure” had legs. “We were at Essence Fest before the first season came out and we were able to just like walk through the streets of New Orleans. No one was checking for us. Issa was recognized because of ‘Awkward Black Girl’ [her popular web series] but ‘Insecure’ hadn’t come out,” Oriji recalled. At that moment, Oriji said her co-star Jay Ellis turned to her and Rae and said that after “Insecure” premiered later that year, the pair would no longer be able to “walk through the streets of New Orleans without getting mobbed.” “Me and Issa were like, ‘Stop playing we are just regular people. Like, it’s not even gon’ be like that.’ After season two, we came for Essence Fest and we had to have security. It was black cars only,” Oriji said. “That was when you’re just like, ‘Oh, things have changed.'” The final episode of “Insecure” airs on Sunday, December 26. “Insecure: The End,” a documentary special about the production of the show, will debut on HBO Max on the same day. Read the original article on Insider
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Written by: zntim@businessinsider.com (Zac Ntim)