Actor Issa Rae joins Trending to discuss some of her upcoming projects including Greta Gerwig's 'Barbie' and 'Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.'

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Issa Rae Teases New Roles in 'Barbie' and 'Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse'

and switching gears, insecure might be over but is array is busier than ever. Yeah, well there's joining the cast of Greta Gerwig Barbie lending her voice to play Spider woman in the new Spiderman into the Spiderverse sequel or chatting with Meghan Markle on our podcast, there's a lot going on and fortunately for us cheddar news, senior reporter, Michelle castel leo had a few minutes and the actor, writer, producer scheduled to chat at MX travels, trending destinations event right here in new york city, take a look. So let's talk a little bit about your career. So you went to stanford, you graduated african american studies and then you pivoted to this online world became had viral success and now you're in the film tv space. It's really a journey, not a lot of people have been able to do So what advice do you have for people trying to follow this path for me, it really just came down to tapping into the community around me. So you mentioned my, my journey at stanford, so many people that I work with right now are people that I went to school with who have helped me along my journey and you know, I believe vice versa, I've helped them along there. So I constantly advise people to continue to create with those around you and to keep at it like consistency is so key and finding the cheapest ways you can do it because you know, we all don't have the resources, but if no matter the quality of the content like um cinematically, I think as long as you have something to say, people will be drawn to it and you just have to do it. So you launch Hooray, which is your production company in 2020 I looked it up and only 18% of non Hollywood, traditional studio production companies are run by women. So what do you know now that you wish you knew two years ago, there's so much I learned so much every single day, but one of the things that I've learned is that, and it's obvious, but there's so many resources available for you to just stay, stay ahead of what's happening in the industry and that people are learning as they go along, there are no experts by any means in this industry and it really just comes down to what they're reading and you can read what they read. So if I had known that a long time ago that I would have felt like more on top of my game, but now that I do, like I feel unstoppable. So you know, growing up, I always was always looking for a toy that looked like myself and there just wasn't a lot in the market and you know, now we've seen stuff like barbies that are normal to cultural, I know you're in the new barbie movie, what was it like to be asked to be in this project? I mean it was an honest person was Greta Greta Gerwig, if you get a chance to meet her, she is the most personable person. She's so warm and welcoming and to just hear her vision felt like, you know, an honor and to be in it, you know, I was just excited. It was, it was so much fun to be a part of and she was just so smart, so I'm really excited for people to see it. I know you can't talk much about it, but I can, I can just tell you that um there's more than the pictures that you've seen online. Okay, alright, we're gonna stay tuned. And another thing you're voicing, Jessica drew in the new Spiderman movie, So are you gonna do you like you always thinking about being a voice actor? Yeah, a voice actor. Uh Not really, no, I really got excited about the opportunity to be in the world. I've been such a Spider man fan since the third grade, so my family knows like when they saw that announcement, they were like, I know you're, you're dying right now, so um for me, it's just, it is a lot of fun. I've done, I've done a couple of projects where I get to act with just my voice, it's not what I imagined in my head, like when I used to actually Simpsons and other animated shows growing up, I thought that they were just all in the same room, like talking to each other and it's not quite that, but it's so much fun, You just get an opportunity to flex different muscles. Now we talked a lot about your projects but how is this array the character different from this array the person in real life, she's just younger. Honestly we, she was younger and more romantic than I was. I think that she extended herself um and was more vulnerable than I allowed myself to be. But we have so much time and they've been the, the diagram is basically a circle, very narrow, sliver, very off circle. And do you have, you know when you kept your personal life pretty private, how do you keep that separation between your public persona and who, who we see online? It's really easy honestly. Uh I think if you know, I don't want people to know something they don't like, I think I would say that I always say that like, I feel like musicians and like the super famous people have it a bit harder because people are like camped out their houses and they are determined to find dirt. But you know, I have it pretty pretty easy where I can just, hey public, I'm here. Hey, you'll never see me. You know? Alright, final question, What is lisa Ray up to next and where is she traveling next? I am up to, I'm traveling to Senegal with my family, I'm very, very excited about that. I'm excited. I, the planning portion is terrible. So like when I think about even just what a mix travelers have been able to do to help plan trips like that has just taken that burden off of me. Um It's been sexually challenged me just trying to, trying to get the time to travel, so I don't want to spend any more time like figuring out the details, so I'm just super super excited to be able to go on this family trip with them that we haven't, we haven't gone there together as a family since you know, I was in elementary school. What an amazing location that is special. Thanks guys to act a writer, a producer easter ray with her Michele Castelli.