Prentice Penny talks to EW about avoiding the ‘too neat’ ending
Well, that was hella entertaining.
On Sunday,Insecurewrapped its standout (and too short!)
TV’s best show-within-a-show, and the “surprising” controversy regarding the show’s practice of safe sex.
Credit: Justina Mintz/HBO; Inset: Randy Shropshire/Getty Images
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What was behind the idea of the finale’s unique structure?
And we liked the idea of what else can we do with playing with time.
How did you intend for it to play?
She didn’t vocalize certain things in the first episode that she was feeling and the same with him.
And I think the scene in the apartment was them saying things that they had long been feeling.
I don’t want to say completely…
I definitely have thoughts [laughs].
I don’t know, I’m not actually sure what the future holds for Issa and Lawrence.
I think that’s the fun thing about our show.
But I think there will always be some sort of unsaid web that connects them.
Can they be friends?
Did you intend for viewers to even momentarily believe the proposal was real?
So we always thought that you’d emotionally connect to it on either side.
Obviously, we wanted people to believe it was real for at least a moment.
Hopefully, people were touched by it either way.
So why have her move in with him?
When you’re 29 or 30, you take two steps forward, one step back.
You still do things that are perplexing or confusing.
Their relationship was always kind of messy in a weird way, which she even says in episode seven.
And the same with Molly.
That’s not always real life.
Do you ever just want to give Issa a win?
In this episode, she loses her apartment, her title at work, and maybe Lawrence for good.
How do you balance the positive and negative in her life?
The first season of the show, Lawrence was horrible to a degree and everyone loved Issa.
By the end of the season, the Lawrence Hive kicked in.
One of the things we tried to do this year was debunk that Issa is perfect.
Obviously, Issa Rae the person is charming, intelligent, beautiful, and smart.
But, Issa Dee, the character, is a different person.
That character sometimes makes bad choices and sometimes makes good choices.
He has a lot of L’s too this year.
It’s about, where do the wins happen?
Issa does have a win in getting closure with Lawrence.
Issa does have a win by deciding to stand up to the vice principal and realizing what is right.
When Issa started to think she could be with another man, that was a win for her.
The wins come, but sometimes they’re just moral wins or “I’m taking a step.”
Often in life, the wins are small.
What was the genesis for that idea?
They love each other, but always give each other a hard time.
We thought it would be a funny television show; not for our show, just in general.
It was really super organic.
How did you go about landing Regina Hall and Scott Foley for the roles of Ninny and the master?
When Regina Hall first got the call, she thought she was going to be onInsecurethe show.
She was like, “Yeah, yeah, I want to be onInsecure!
Wait,Due North, what is this?”
And so, she read it and thought it was super funny.
They were both just amazing sports.
I can’t believe that they did it, but they sell it.
They’re the reason why I think it’s so great.
What was your initial reaction to hearing about it?
At first, I was really shocked because there’s really not that much sex on our show.
But we’re certainly not promoting or advocating it and we always venture to have condoms in the background.
We’re not a documentary or a PSA.
Rarely do we see it play out in actual real time.
I have never heard this aboutAtlanta,Scandal,Empire, or any other cable show.
I think it does show how much people care about our show.
Twitter is like that the good and the bad.
It’s a brush fire.
It’s too big of a force.
Insecurehas been renewed for a third season on HBO.
