Yvonne Orjihas been lovingly hecklingIssa RaeandJay Ellisall day.
One moment she’s laughing and then suddenly she gets rather quiet and actually starts to tear up.
Those brief tears not the heckling finally cause Rae to break and laugh.
Jay Ellis, Issa Rae, and Yvonne Orji at EW’s ‘Insecure’ digital cover shoot.AB+DM for EW
This is the last run.'
“We always say internally in the room, it’s [about] being Black on a Tuesday.
Those are the stories we’re telling.”
Jay Ellis, Issa Rae, and Yvonne Orji at EW’s ‘Insecure’ digital cover shoot.AB+DM for EW
Was it a deadbeat dad?
Was it cocaine?'
No, [onInsecure], it was having a degree and still not finding the job you want.
‘Insecure’ costars Issa Rae and Yvonne Orji.AB+DM for EW
That’s also a real-life plight of Black people.
It doesn’t have to be so salaciously traumatic.
Every day presents a challenge.
You don’t have to add any extraness to it.
So how does that affect my mindset, or the decision that I make?
How does it affect how I talk to my partner?'
That’s just living for us, and it’s not an afterschool-special moment."
What’s the gender of this episode?
What’s the race of this episode?
I know myself, to an extent, and my relationships.
And the shows that I’ve loved have a specificity.
It just really came down to basing it off real people and real experience.
Issa is so close to me, and Molly is so close to my best friend."
The love between them is so real that Orji often found it hard when their characters were at odds.
An argument in season 1’s penultimate episode left the actress shaken after the cameras stopped rolling.
“We knew we had so much love for each other.
That s— hurts,” says Rae.
Who was at fault for the rift in this case?
It depends on who you ask.
They hoped viewers would be split, but that was definitely not the case.
or ‘What that mean?’
Every word… every moment feels like something that needs to be processed or analyzed."
Am I going to be okay if this friendship goes away?'
Can you find a way to be happy?
Can you find a way to still thrive?"
Issa’s relationship with Lawrence also remains up in the air.
Unfortunately, the honeymoon period didn’t last long.
As the season ended, Issa was left questioning if she wanted to dive into such a complicated relationship.
Ironically, Lawrence wasn’t even supposed to make it this far into the series.
He’s just a dude trying to figure it out, too."
“If you asked me, I was Jon Snow.
I wasn’t going nowhere.
I truly was in my own bubble!”
I would have been thinking, ‘Oh, how can I get them to keep me?’
as opposed to just being in it every day.
I’m grateful that they waited."
While Rae deviated from her Lawrence plan, she held firm on how longInsecureshould last.
In season 1, Rae and Penny agreed that they only wanted to do five seasons.
“Every show has a DNA,” says Penny.
“We always looked at our show as, ‘It isn’t meant to be 90 episodes.’
I think we just felt that’s the right amount of time to tell these characters' stories.”
That’s not to say the cast was ready to go their separate ways.
“I retired afterInsecure.
I think I called it quits,” jokes Orji.
“I realize thatInsecureand the family we had was such a unique and special experience….
I am still chasing that high.”
Yvonne’s career is insane right now, with specials and hosting and movies.
[Consulting producer/star] Natasha Rothwell is doing movies and writing and [signing] deals.
Everyone has had such tremendous success from this show.
That, I think, artistically raises the bar in a lot of ways.
you could’t put bulls— out.
You are challenged to be better every single day because those around you are doing great."
That drive to constantly be better was certainly pervasive particularly heading into the final episode.
I stand by it, I like it," Rae says of second-guessing her work.
Motion direction and photography by AB+DM for EW.
