Yvonne Orji Has a Theory About Who Drake Would Play If He Stopped By HBO’s ‘Insecure’

There are many things about the HBO comedy Insecure that are fantastic, but the friendship between Issa (Issa Rae) and her BFF Molly (Yvonne Orji) is exceptionally special. They can switch gears from calling each other on their shit, to laughing it up at brunch, to simply knowing when the other one needs a hug. They are supportive and honest with each other as they both navigate life’s confusing, silly, and mortifying moments.
I spoke with the super-fun Orji on the phone about what she would do if she was having her own “fancy day”, why she lost her mind at the Bad Boy reunion tour, and what makes her a good friend IRL. But the fact that she didn’t immediately jump at the idea of dating Drake on-screen due to her friend and co-star’s feelings, really says it all.
It was fun to see Molly and Issa have a “fancy day” in episode 2, getting their nails done and all that. What is your version of a fancy day?
Oh, I’m buying candles, because I just love a good candle. But if you get your hair done, your eyebrows done, and your nails done, and go to the salon and get your hoo-ha waxed, you’re feeling like a brand new baby. You are feeling like, ‘Can’t nobody tell me anything. Do you know who I am?’ With eyebrows, hair, nails, and waxing in all the right places, you just wanna go somewhere. You’re like ‘I need to be seen today. Somebody needs to see me in these streets.’
It’s the truth. I’m not a person that particularly enjoys the p-word, so the past couple of weeks have been awfully interesting, so you know where I’m going to go with this question. How do you recommend women bounce back from a broken pussy? Are you more the type to stay home with wine or go hit the town?
What’s funny is, I think someone asked me, ‘Did you imagine you’d be using the p-word this much in your life?’ I feel like I’ve reached my quota with that word. I’ve exceeded the amount of usage I have for that word.

It depends on my mood. A lot of times if I’m feeling kind of like ‘wah wah wah,’ I will definitely be inside with some buttery kettle corn and a rom-com, either Love & Basketball or Beyond the Lights. I love Beyond the Lights so much. I watched that in the theaters and my roommate was like, ‘Have you never had your heart broken? It’s just a movie.’ I’m like, ‘Allow me to dream.’ So I’m more like, let me live vicariously through other people finding love when I don’t have love. And then sometimes I’m like, ‘You know what? I haven’t gone out dancing in a long time.’ It’s definitely getting into four-inch heels, the sexiest pair of jeans or something I can move in. And it’s like, ‘Ladies, we’re going out tonight. I don’t know where we’re going, but we’re going out tonight and we’re sweating. We are sweating.’ I don’t even care who sees me, I just wanna dance my sorrows away.
I’m like, “Should we call ahead and let them know that I need them to play every Missy Elliott song ever, please? Like, let them know.”
[Laughs] Just sweat and sing. I’m an 80s baby but for me, the 90s and early 2000s, that kind of hip-hop and R&B, that gets me. I went to the Bad Boy concert not long ago. Listen, I lost my everlasting mind. I thought my shoulders were gonna fall off because I Harlem Shook so much and then DMX came out. I have three older brothers, so I’m a tomboy at heart, and when DMX came out, I legit thought I was a dog. I started barking, it was weird.
You felt it. You felt it.
I felt it. I was with like 8 other girlfriends and it was just like, ‘Is that Mary J. Blige?’ Yes, we are dancing. It was perfect.
Was Mase there too?
Mason Betha definitely came out! You don’t understand, Lea, we got our everlasting life.

I love when Issa does her mirror talking on the show. Do you do mirror talking, and what do you tell yourself?
I do a lot of my everything in the shower because that’s where all of my ideas come. All of my ideas are just so profound when heat is on me. But I talk to myself regularly out in public and I have to remind myself, ‘Hey, Yvonne, other people can see you, so please stop. They’re gonna come up and give you a dollar because they think you’re probably homeless.’ But in the mirror, after I do my makeup, I’m like, ‘You did that eyeliner? I see you. Look at your eyeliner game! Okay!’ I’m a big proponent of self-talk and self-encouragement, so in the mirror this morning, I’m planning this event and I’m like, ‘Why do you think this is acceptable? Why did you think you could do this? You know this is this week.’ And I just looked in the mirror and was like, ‘You got this, though.’ And then I went back to my computer like, ‘I hope I got this.’ But it’s good.

A lot of people are responding to the fact that Insecure is a show about young women that are figuring out life and dating in LA and they happen to be black. Is there is a scene or a storyline that you felt was particularly important to tell in the show, that you were really proud of?
In episode 4, I think a lot of women will relate to it but also a lot of black women will relate to it, too. There’s a new law intern at Molly’s job and she’s ‘the other black girl,’ and she’s not as refined as Molly is. Molly definitely has to navigate being the only black person in this corporate law firm and here comes this girl named Rashida, who is loud and could be stereotypically black. Molly knows she needs to talk to this girl like, ‘Hey, by the way, there’s rules. There’s unspoken rules of the workplace and they’re not going to tell you this but as your homegirl I’m gonna let you know what the real is.” And that doesn’t go the way she hopes it would. Then she’s asked by her white boss to do the same thing that she tried to do, but now she’s conflicted because it’s like, ‘My white boss is telling me to talk to the only other black person at the office,’ and so it puts her in a whole weird situation. There are so many different layers to it because we’ve all, at some point, been the only woman, or the only guy, or the only black person. So she’s conflicted because she doesn’t want to jeopardize this other girl’s position, but she also doesn’t want to be the way Issa is as the token black girl, because she wants to be seen beyond race. She’s a corporate lawyer who’s good at her job, at the end of the day. But it’s very convoluted, so I think the episode will resonate with a lot of people even beyond race.

There are many people watching this show who might not have a ton of black friends or just haven’t seen a show of women that are black that are living their lives and being millennials or whatever you want to call them. Was there a show or a story that opened your eyes to something that you weren’t familiar with?
One of my favorite shows back in the day was Everybody Loves Raymond and it’s this Italian family and, for me, I’m a first generation-er. I love seeing depictions of people’s families or people from other cultures. I think the beauty of TV is that you do get a bird’s-eye view of certain aspects of a people group or a cultural lens to someone else’s life. You see My Big Fat Greek Wedding and you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, is this what it’s like?’ A part of you relates to it on some level, like if you have a big family, you’re like, ‘I totally get that,’ or an overbearing mother. So you see things that are similar, and that’s what connects you, but you also see things that are different and of course I wanna ask my Greek friends, ‘Is this what this is like?’ Because I really want to know. So I think that’s the beauty of TV is that you’re right, people from other races have had to see white culture, which is the mainstream culture, through the different lenses of things they had. If it’s the nerds, you’ve got Big Bang Theory, it’s Friends. You’ve got all of these friends in New York City and you’re like, ‘Okay, this is what this is like for this group of people.’ And then you have Curb Your Enthusiasm, which is like, ‘This is what it’s like for this particular guy who says what he wants and it’s kind of off and he has the liberty to do that,’ and you get to laugh at it. I’m really glad that people that aren’t black are liking the show because, for the longest time, we’ve had to like shows that didn’t include us but we liked it just because it was funny or because it was dramatic or because we related to it on some level even though we weren’t included. So I think that the reverse is happening for our show. I think it speaks to the time that we’re in right now and I also think it speaks to the cleverness of the writers because they wrote something that’s universal. Even though you see a majority black cast, we’re human, and it speaks to the human experience and I think that’s beautiful, that we are able to live in a world where it’s like, ‘Hey, they don’t exactly look like me, but I get it.’

I loved the quote from the first episode, “All black girls that went to college love Drake” and just wanted to get a confirmation that you’re on board with it.
I think it’s true. I don’t know if it’s factual, there’s not exactly a poll that covers this, but he gets it. He’s talented. I love Drake.
You know what I think we just discovered? Next season, Drake will have to be a Molly love interest.
It could either be a Molly love interest or an Issa [love interest]. I feel like if Drake was a Molly love interest, Issa might have a problem with it because Issa loves Drake. She’s the biggest Drake fan. So I feel like someway, somehow, he might just have to be either Lawrence’s new best friend or something. He needs to be in her world because I can only imagine if Molly and Drake are having a love scene, Issa would be in the background like, ‘Who wrote this? This is not right.’
They’ll collaborate on the “Broken Pussy” song, that’s what they’ll do.
It’ll be the “Broken Pussy” remix! And it’ll be called, “I Can Fix That.”

What makes you a great best friend in real life?
A lot of times I have to remind myself, ‘I’m a good friend.’ I was bullied for such a long time in grade school and I didn’t have any friends. So when I got friends, I was like the ‘yes, yes’ friend and I didn’t have any opinions of my own because I didn’t want to lose these new friends. Then college was me finding myself and then, you know, the things you didn’t know still affected you from when you were in like 7th grade?
I know I’m a giver. There have been so many people who have slept on my couch and it doesn’t even dawn on me. I’m like, ‘Oh my God, you need a place to stay? Please, sleep on my couch! I’ll feed you!’ And it might be the Nigerian in me to just give what you can, whether it be your time or if it’s your house or if it’s food or whatever. So, those are the things that I believe make me a good friend. I’m a giver and I’m an encourager just by nature. Don’t be down around me because I’ll pep you up. I’m like, ‘We’ll figure this out.’ I’ll see all the light in you, I’ll encourage you. I’ll see the greatness that you didn’t even know was there. I’m the person that’s like, ‘You can never give up!’ And this definitely stems from being told you weren’t pretty or being bullied, but I try — and this is with everybody, not just my friends – whoever I meet, I try to find something I admire or like in them and I acknowledge it. It could be a pair of shoes, like ‘I love your shoes!’ It could be a total stranger and I’m like, ‘You’re beautiful!’ And they’re like ‘What?’ And ‘I just wanted to share that with you in case no one else tells you today. You’re amazing, you’re gorgeous.’ They’re like, ‘I don’t know you.’ Don’t worry about it. Just take it.
I love that. You know, a woman on the subway once told me, ‘Oh I love your shoes,’ and my confidence was through the roof all day. When a stranger compliments you, you’re like, ‘Oh my God, my shoes must be amazing.’
Doesn’t that make you feel great? Don’t keep that to yourself, no one should keep that to yourself. If your hair is poppin’, I’m like, ‘Your hair is gorgeous! Did you just come from the hair salon? No? But you could have because it looks amazing.’
Well, I can’t see it, but I’m sure your hair looks amazing right now.
[Laughs] I’ll take it!
[Watch Insecure on HBO Go]