Issa Rae explains why a famous Maya Angelou quote is her favorite piece of advice
Senegalese-American actress and filmmaker Issa Rae touched on why a famous Maya Angelou quote is her favorite piece of advice.
Per PEOPLE, Rae, 41, expatiated on the deceased poet and civil rights activist’s quote during a panel discussion at the Create Canva/Building Creative Empires for Social Good event at the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on April 16. That was after the moderator, Lily Workneh, asked her about the “one piece of advice that you wish someone had given you earlier that might have saved you time, money or energy.”
“My girl Maya says when someone shows you they are, believe them the first time,” Rae stated. “If you have a feeling, obviously, your gut tells you everything you know.”
“Sometimes I’ve had situations where I have tried to give someone the benefit of the doubt, but I knew in the back of my mind, ‘Oh, this makes my shoulders tense,’ or there’s something that I just saw that might not be great, but I might be tripping,” she added.
READ ALSO: How Issa Rae is quietly building a business empire
The 41-year-old continued: “If you see that one thing, if you see something, believe yourself and figure something. I’ve given too many chances. I do that more in business than I do in my personal life, which is kind of backwards because I want to [have] faith in people and … myself.”
During the discussion, Rae also spoke about how she used Insecure to open the pathway for “the doors that are open for so many other writers and creators and producers and people who are doing amazing things now.” She said that was her “proudest accomplishment.”
Rae received three Emmy nominations for her role in the series.
“Most recently, [one of those things is] being able to make a studio movie, produce a studio movie, [with] a writer that I love, Syreeta Singleton, and in a time when studio comedies aren’t getting made, and having the pressure of, if this doesn’t work, then they’re not going to make any other Black comedies — especially one starring two Black women — and being able to make $50 million in theaters,” Rae said in referrence to the One of Them Days movie, which stars Keke Palmer and SZA.
“Now, having other opportunities to create more films, and in a sense, bring comedies back … I’m like, ‘Great,’ ” she also said.
