YouSaid · the spoken record

Issa Rae

lines on the record: 97
first: 2022-09-26
most recent: 2022-09-26
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Yeah, when I will credit New York for giving me that hustle mentality, I left New York and came to LA and LA felt so slow to me. LA people will be like, I'm working on a script, and you'll be like, Where is the script? And they'll be like, oh, it's coming, it's coming. I got you. I got you. New York, I'm working on the script. Where is it at? It's right here. And I got this and I got that. And they're just, they're ready. And so there was part of me that didn't want to be the flaky LA person. So I realized like I have to show improve. I have to get my hustle on. Like I have I have to work and I have to make these opportunities for myself and I have to be ready and a moment's notice. And so my brother had this music group. I asked if I could do his music video. And he was like, yeah, if you're going to do it for free, absolutely.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I want to say 24. And she's waking me up in the middle of the night because I left dishes in the sink. And it's just like, first of all, yes, it's disrespectful on my end to like come home and leave a mess, but come on. I'm not 16 anymore? Like, what lessons are you teaching me? I can get up in the morning and wash it, treat me like the adult that I am. And in her mind, she's like, you're not the adult that you are until you're out in my house, you know, and I'm not paying you're paying your own bills. So it was really, really humbling and frustrating.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, you know, I'm out here. Trying to become an agent. Tracy's out here, you know, in the producer's program. And you're all the way in New York. We could be working together. Like, come to LA. Everybody you know is here. You can save money. And I was just like, yeah, why am I out here? Kind of wasting my time. I haven't failed if I come back home. And so that was like, yeah, nothing's keeping me here. I might as well go home. What I can do.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“My friends, and that was another revelation visiting LA, I want to say I came in before a graduation or something, and I caught up with Tracy and my other Asian friend Ashley, and we went to the beach one day, and they were just like, girl, why are you still in LA?”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“didn't wanted to know that I wasn't alone. And that was the first iteration of that idea after I wrote it down. Was like, oh, I'm going to make t shirts. And to me, even t shirts are like if people are out there wearing, then you can point out someone else who identifies that way. And it's a conversation starter or even if you don't start the conversation, it's a way to feel like, oh, I'm not alone in this. That person over there is awkward too. So in a way, it's a defense mechanism to outwardly claim it before someone else claims it about you. And also to just be like, look, I know what it is, guys. Okay. Just bear with me. I've already said what it is. Like we've gotten that out the way.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What we just discussed about feeling ridiculously uncomfortable to just even go out to someone and introduce myself, the small moments in life that either made me feel uncomfortable or irritated me. And just how many of those things also had to do with My blackness too. And that really just kind of made me laugh. And the fact that those two didn't necessarily intersect often, even publicly in images that I'd seen in media. And that was something that I wanted to explore. I felt special for realizing that and felt special for having that identity. And also wanted to find my tribe. Like, who else identifies the same way?”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think once I realized you're not the only one that's going through this, you're not the only one that feels this way, the more people, I realize people felt the same. And I was like, this is kind of an identity. And I'll never forget writing those words in my journal in New York. Just I'm awkward and black. I shared that as a Facebook status. My friend Tracy was like, ha ha, those are the two worst things anyone could be. And I just found that hilarious.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“the time the diary the journal because that's what makes sure people say the journal was like my my therapy But people could also tell. I think part of being an introvert, part of being even insecure is you're constantly aware of the way that people view you, even like questions that acquaintances might ask me about what I was doing, they just felt like. Like I was being judged. And almost throwing my life away, and whether or not that was true, that's, I guess, how I felt inside. But I definitely wrote to Cope.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Especially when you feel like what are you putting yourself out there? How do you go up to someone and talk to them about what you do? I'm always. Definitely afraid of imposing on people, like taking up their time and asking people to watch something Being vulnerable in that way, I need you and I potentially need something from you, but I don't know what I have to offer you.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Put yourself out there Which is like what everyone tells you, you just got to put yourself out there. Do you know how hard that is?”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Really, really bad for him. And then, of course, hated that all of everything was stolen. Such a violation. And of course, my roommate stuff. And, you know, we just felt so helpless.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, my apartment got broken into the night before I was supposed to go pitch. And like my computer was stolen, everything, the film equipment, I was editing this guy's movie, and he gave me, which he had not done before. He gave me all of his original tapes and they stole those tapes. And that was like his life's work. And I felt so bad about that. I was like, why would they steal tapes? The way I had my camera set up in my bedroom, it was on a tripod and it was like pointed towards the bed. And somebody was like, they probably thought that was porn. Like they were stealing porn tapes. And I was like, damn, they're going to be so disappointed when it's just like a Jamaican movie. So I felt.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Diplomat, oh, you're doing, and that was just like, damn, everybody's killing it, and maybe my dad was right. Maybe I did. Maybe I should have had a backup plan. Maybe I should have taken college more seriously so I could have something to fall back on. And that began my process of studying for the LSET and then ultimately the GMAC just to be able to get a master's like he wanted me to do so badly.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Without a doubt, anxious about life, I was living in the worst apartment. I was watching my friends. These very clear paths to me to do what they wanted to do. I would feel incredibly insecure just about where I was because I was essentially You know, making videos just trying to make ends meet, taking odd jobs in the theater world still, but there was just like no progress to me. You can't really measure progress in the same way that you can measure like, oh, you're in your second year of law school. You're about to take the bar. Oh, you are now.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I wrote like the spec script of what the television show would be. And then my brother had a friend who worked at, I want to say VH1 at the time. And I was begging him, like, give me a meeting with her, give me a meeting with her. So, all those, I was just trying at the very same time while I was working at the public theater to get that off the ground.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Because I had spent all this time trying to write and send my work to Either producers, executives, contests, whatever, in an attempt to get it made, to get it seen. And I was either told why there wouldn't be an audience for this particular work or that, you know, they just didn't want to make it. And so to be able to just literally write something on the fly, cast my friends, recorded myself, edited myself, put it out there, and have an immediate audience that liked it, that wanted more of it was just so validating in a way where I was like, I can keep. Doing this, if I want to. Yes, it's a smaller scale. No, it's not television. But if I'm really serious about like writing and getting my work seen, this is a viable way to do it.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it started to spread to other college campuses that had either Black Dorms or BSUs. Just like this was my college experience. And they felt seen.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so I wrote the script and just cast my friends One of the friends that I ultimately cast was Tracy. Yeah, then I would just go and film it, take up like 30 minutes of their time, maybe max an hour. And then I would edit it in my spare time and the response was amazing.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh yeah I guess that must have been where I got it from so that the office wasn't I want to know the office wasn't out by that time”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, that camcorder that was readily available in our school's library. I constantly checked that camera out just to record. And then, yeah, then use the firewall cable to put it on my laptop.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, because it just felt like such a small community. You know, it felt like nobody's thinking, nobody was thinking about the longevity of the internet in those days. You just weren't. Are you uploading a picture when you're making a video called FUB? You know, like you're not thinking about the fact that this will live on and ultimately, which happened, a friend of mine was in that video and was like, girl, I'm trying to get jobs. Can you please take this video down? Like, we're out of college. It's over.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Elite, you know, in their film program and all that, you know, that people Go there who are extremely talented and kill it, and I feel like I might have been intimidated. But to do something like that at a school where that's not the focus. Made things increase my confidence.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Absolutely, and I really credit Stanford for being such a welcoming place to do that. And I think it was so welcoming because that wasn't the focus. I really wanted to go to NYU and there's no way in my mind that I would have been able to like fail or suck, I'd say, as hard.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, that was my first production and the community behind that. Like some of the people even just in that play that helped me produce it, that were in it are still heavily part of my community right now. But yeah, that started the run of four years of putting on productions, like terrible productions, but still productions.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I was just like, ugh, this is not for me. But luckily a girl had started this theater company just to put on her own play. And she put on a hip hoper and cast me as one of the leads. And that experience was incredible just to watch her pull the resources together to make it happen. And also seeing that she was an amateur in the space, it just made it less intimidating for me to feel like I could do it”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, the opposite. I think I isolated myself in. In a bubble because I was used to being around, you know, predominantly black people. Ultimately, I just didn't really, I wasn't interested in being outside of that bubble and really sought my community. So I found myself really just craving what I had and what I grew up with. And the drama department at Stanford was not as catering to people of color. As my drama teacher was. And so, like, even the productions that we're putting on didn't really appeal to me. I wasn't a big musical person.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was you know kind of based on me and was a projection of a lot of my insecurities about myself, but her asking that directly, I was like, you're supposed to follow the character. I wrote about a very specific character. And I just didn't like that feeling. And I don't think I let anybody else read what I had to write until I had to. I absolutely had to.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was always protective about letting people read my stuff It is, and you don't want it, and even now I feel that way. Like, I don't want it, I don't want any negative energy. I don't want anybody to tell me it's not good or that it doesn't resonate with them. Always better when you feel good about it. Like that moment when you finish and you're like, man, I did it. And I mess with it. I love it. Like for someone else to taint that, I was very aware of that and really insecure about that. And I remember I did let my, I let my high school best friend read one of my scripts. And she was really, she was positive, but she was just like, is this about you? And I didn't like that question because it was like the main character that I had written.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“My mind that wasn't a rejection of my work. So it was still, it was just like, oh, I need an agent and I'm 12, 11, 12. So I'm not there yet. Kind of just gave up on it.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, for sure. I got a rejection letters, which I thought was really generous because you know, they can't take unsolicited scripts. And so.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and my grandmother taught me she was very encouraging. She taught me how to copyright it the bootleg way to make sure that no one stole my idea. By mailing it to myself first, and then you know, I did my due diligence and then sending it out with the cover letter as well.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Is that right? Yes, yes, it was. It was about Erica Alexander's character getting a tongue ring and Cosby's reaction to that. Because tongue rings were all the source of judgment.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, she did, which also changed my life. So that was it. I was trying to make a funny but dramatic sitcom. And then Cosby came out. I was like, I got to be commercial. Like, you know, I can't just go out the gate With an original, you know, I have to pay my dues and show that I could write. For an existing show. I don't know where I got that from, but Cosby had just come out with his CBS sitcom. And I wrote an episode of that.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I did one original stupid one original sitcom called Ronnie about a middle school boy living in LA trying to avoid gang violence because I had seen South Central a short-lived sitcom that one of my heroes, Gina Prince Bythwood, wrote for.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“How it's done. This is how it's done right in front of me, and I got to see it play out, and I got to, I remember the movements, and the episode's gonna air when it airs, and then I'll be able to follow along. And it really was, like, I started writing right away.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I was writing teleplays. I had. The opportunity, you know, I was obsessed with television. Starting in elementary school. Like I had a lineup, I had a program, I knew what I was watching at a certain time so much so that my mom had to condense like you can only do an hour of TV on weeknights. And then it became half an hour. But I was still sneaking and that means that I was catching up on weekends. And I just wanted, as soon as I found out we were moving to LA, I was like, oh my gosh, LA is where Hollywood is and where TV is. Maybe this is my chance to be able to write. My childhood friend had tickets to Moesha, a taping of Moesia, and to sit in that live studio audience. Changed my life. And I got, I want to teleplay. I want to teleplay of that episode.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Did I all four years? I had an amazing drama teacher who was really intentional, it was a Jewish drama teacher who was intentional about making sure that we were well versed in some of the black and Latino playwrights. And he just introduced me to a whole new world of theater and was so passionate about it”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Absolutely. And kids, you're just like, oh, we're doing you a favor. I teach her told us to perform and we're entertaining you. So you're happy that we're here. And there's just an escapism that I've always admired about trying on someone else's personality, trying on someone else's skin. And people talk about it all the time. It's really liberating to just not be you for a moment, to be in someone else's head”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Actually, started in elementary school, it started in Maryland. I remember the exact moment was being cast as Demetrius in our fifth grade play. And I was like, I'm the only girl cast as a boy. But this play is kind of cool. And when I'm on stage, people are laughing in the way that I intend them to. And I feel good at this.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, definitely. It was, I would say, perfectly balanced because my mom was my mom was Christian, my dad's Muslim, and she's from Louisiana and he's from Senegal. And by way of living in LA, we had a lot of relatives come visit us. But Senegalese culture is such that if someone knocks on your door from Senegal and wants to stay with you, you have to let them.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, but my dad, again, you know, he was a doctor. And so he was very clear about how proud he would be if one of us became doctors. So for me, I was like, it's going to be me then. Of course I'm going to make him proud. I want to be a doctor too. Just like him. And of course, even seeing his practice, seeing his name. On the clinic was special going to school, going to middle school, and being like, oh, your last name is mispronounced. Diop joked. But you're is your dad my doctor? And that was special to me. So for me, that was the vanity of it might have kind of stoked my interest in science and medicine.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But it is really helpful. Like, even yesterday, I was like, I have this thing, but if it doesn't go away in three days, I'll ask my dad what's up. And if you're worried, he will ease your worries. So that's the convenient part.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh a hundred percent, but also he's the most dismissive of any ailments we may have because he's just like he's seen it all. He's seen it all.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it's like a warming, an office warming party. And I just remember. Seeing it decorated to be catered to kids. And I thought that that was super beautiful. And, you know, I was in this neighborhood. That was, he was servicing predominantly black and brown patients. And it was just like, oh, my dad built something. The ground up. This is that stood out to me as something that was distinctly his and special.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I remember him, you know, he opened this practice in Inglewood and I remember visiting it. He had maybe like a launch party. That's not what you call it. But it was something.”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, how's it going? How's Shonda? And it's just like, oh. Yeah, uh, just a different direction. You know, I was just working on a lot of things, so, you know, maybe just don't ask me. Maybe just don't. Do I ask you about your work every day? No. Do I ask you how your projects go? But no, like it was just, it was really devastating. And I thought it was over for me. I thought nobody's going to want to work with the failure who couldn't make a show with Shauna Rhymes, who couldn't like make the layup”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's also the embarrassing part of working in Hollywood is you get these announcements of things that are happening and the support. And then they just disappear while there's not an announcement that it's not going, you still get those questions”
2022-09-26 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HOORAE: Issa Rae · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT