Insecure premiered Sunday night on HBO. We speak to recurring star Veronica Mannion about Issa Rae’s sharp female-centric comedy.
Issa Rae’s transition from YouTube to cable TV has been, to borrow Insecure‘s vernacular, smooth as f***.
Rae’s web series The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl was sharp, hilarious and relatable when it premiered in 2011, and Insecure feels like a matured, more nuanced take on the same themes.
The show premiered two weeks ago on HBO, and for the occasion, Hypable’s Hype Podcast caught up with actress Veronica Mannion, who plays Issa’s co-worker Kitty, to preview the season ahead.
Listen to the interview with Veronica Mannion:
Or read what she has to say below:
Hypable: It’s been really nice to see the positive reception to Insecure.
VM: I agree, and especially because the people who made it are just so wonderful and kind and talented. It’s so nice when good people are rewarded and hard work really pays off. This show is magic, and I think people are feeling it.
You were hardly in the pilot at all, so what is your character gonna be like? And what kind of role is she gonna have in the show?
I’m a featured player, so it’s mostly about Issa and her best friend Molly and their relationship with each other. But my character Kitty is featured more, especially in episode 3. She kind of reveals herself as maybe the main mean girl in the office when Issa takes over a big presentation at work and Kitty really second-guesses Issa’s capabilities. It was really fun. I can’t wait for you guys to see it. I think this show just gets better and better with every episode.
Insecure is particularly exciting to watch because of Awkward Black Girl, which Issa Rae did a couple of years ago. I actually discovered it back when it first premiered, and I think her self-ironic brand of humor translates really well to television.
Yeah, if you watch Awkward Black Girl, it’s her. She’s playing a version of herself, which I think is always the most successful show, when people are really honest and really reveal themselves. So if you watch the first episode of Awkward Black Girl, you feel like it’s a similar vibe, but the production and her voice have just gotten stronger and better. It’s great you watched it from the beginning, though. It’s so fun to see somebody that you’ve been watching kind of come up through the ranks.
It is, and I wanted to ask you about that as well because I know you’ve done some web series work yourself, and I was wondering how you feel about people breaking through that barrier into the “mainstream”?
It’s really exciting. You do these web series because you can’t get into the mainstream. You feel kind of stuck where you are and you just wanna make great stuff, and who cares if you get a paycheck at that point. You just wanna be acting. So I’ve been in some web series and the goal is always that people will watch them and love them, and that maybe they’d get picked up, but that’s always this dream that you think is so far away. And yet here I am on a show of somebody who did it. It’s really inspiring. And it shows that with hard work… I mean, she’s been doing it for a long time, and just the amount of episodes and work she’s put out is really incredible.
I’ve been a part of two little web series. One is called Crowned; that one’s really great, but there’s only six episodes. We had some really good hits, the trailer has 100,000 views, but Awkward Black Girl has over a million views. That’s amazing. And I think in today’s digital world it makes it easier for the mainstream to take a chance on someone when they see… she’s unstoppable, there’s just no holding her back and she was gonna break the ceiling at one point. I think a lot of people kind of do their web series and they’re like, ‘Here it is!’ and that’s it. They don’t keep putting stuff out there and keep getting better and keep developing things. But that’s what she did, and she’s being rewarded for it.
We cover a lot of web series content on Hypable and there seems to be developing this sub-community of web series creators that work together and share each other’s work. Is that something you’re aware of or doing at all?
It does seem like there’s been an explosion of web series just in the last three years, and I think it’s because it became like, ‘Oh, I can make something on my own that doesn’t have to be a polished pilot; it can be these little videos and I can express myself and get my voice out,’ and it’s a good way for people to get noticed. Also, Crazy Ex Girlfriend, she was making YouTube videos, too.
I’m not really involved in the underground scene, but I am definitely a firm believer in making your own work. I made a feature film musical, Booze, Boys and Brownies, and was gonna go the web series route, and now I’m thinking maybe I should have. Instead I went the indie film way, which is another whole crazy journey on its own, and I got into some pretty great film festivals and won some awards, but my film… I’m still yet to get it on iTunes and Amazon and stuff, and I’m still trying to break through that next barrier.
How did you get involved with Insecure?
I got an audition for an HBO pilot last September, and it was one line, the line you saw in the pilot: “Hey Issa, what’s on fleek?”
That’s been in all the trailers too.
Yeah! Which was great. But it was one line in an HBO pilot, no idea if it was gonna get picked up, based on this Awkward Black Girl web series. I looked her up, I thought the show was funny, I thought the line was funny. I went in, there were a lot of girls my age, different sizes and shapes just doing the same line.
The next thing I heard I get to go to a table read at HBO for this pilot, and I’m in the ladies’ room and I’m all nervous before I go in and this beautiful woman is looking at me and she’s kind of smiling and laughing at me, and I’m like, what is going on? And it’s the director, Melina Matsoukas, and she’s like, ‘I saw your audition and I think your face is really funny!’ They just thought my face was funny, and they booked me for the pilot. And then I shot the pilot last September, and just hoped my one line wasn’t gonna get cut out of the show, and that it’d be picked up. And then in April I found out they wrote me into episodes 2 and 3, and then 6 and 7. So kind of a dream scenario.
What’s the energy like on set?
Everyone’s so great, very female friendly and female run, so many women in front of and behind the camera, different people of color… And people were just so kind. I think everybody really felt the specialness of the show and I think people really wanted to do Issa right and make her proud, and you could feel that.
Are you strictly confined to the script or do they let you improvise at all?
Oh yeah, they’re pretty loosey goosey, depending on the scene. They’ll let you take some wild takes, so you can throw in another line. But sometimes they’re very true to what they want the line to be. But there was a lot of fun just trying new lines, because this show is the first season and it felt like you were developing it together and trying new stuff.
This season of TV in particular, there’s been so many great new series. What about Insecure makes it stand out from the rest? What’s gonna make it stick?
Well, just in comparison to Westworld — which is awesome — but that’s a huge budget production with so many storylines. With Insecure, you can feel the realness of the friendships and relationships, and I think you come back because it’s funny, and it hits your heart. It makes you laugh, but at the same time you really identify and you want to feel something. Those are the best shows, when it’s funny but it makes you feel good, or resonates with you.
I was reading a review that compared it with Sex and the City, but with that friendship between Issa and Molly feeling way more real than that, because they feel like real people and it’s all very nuanced. It feels very real, in a good way.
Yeah I was definitely calling it a Sex and the City in L.A. but with two African American women. And that’s kind of all you need, is two best friends. People were also saying it was like the black Girls, which I don’t think is true. I think the tone is much more Sex and the City. I love Girls, but I think it kind of gets weird and the characters are a little unlikeable, whereas I think people are just instantly gonna fall in love with Issa and Yvonne Orji, who plays Molly. You just feel their friendship, and it’s real, too. They really love each other.
So you’ve been on American Horror Story and Masters of Sex. What’s next for you?
Well I was just lucky enough to shoot a small part on Ryan Murphy’s new show Feud, starring Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon. That’s the show about Joan Crawford and Bette Davis. It looks amazing, their wigs are so fabulous. I’m not really supposed to talk about it, but I play a reporter in episode 2. There are these fabulous vintage outfits, the set is just transformed into a whole different world. I’m wearing this fabulous pink suit straight out of the 1960s. Dream come true! And to work with Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon, it was amazing.
Catch Veronica Mannion in Insecure, along with her independent musical feature Booze, Boys and Brownies, and her web series Crowned and Long Distance. Learn more about Veronica and her many creative projects on her website.