" They keep articulate , you acknowledge , that I ’m this miserly girl on this solidifying , that I harm these masses on set . "
This week,Amanda Sealesappearedon theClub Shay Shaypodcast to address her falling out with Issa Rae and rumors that she was a “mean girl” onInsecure.
Created by and starring Issa,Insecurefollowed Issa Dee, a woman who’s almost 30 and trying to figure out her life in LA. It ran from 2016 to 2021 and featured Amanda as Issa’s friend, Tiffany DuBois.
In the interview, Amanda said issues began in 2019 after she was allegedly denied entry into a Black Emmys party by Issa’s publicist, Vanessa Anderson.
Amanda claimed onClub Shay Shaythat when she talked to Issa about the party a couple of days later, Issa recommended that she and Vanessa speak. According to Amanda, when she spoke with Vanessa, the publicist admitted she didn’t “like” her. She also said Vanessa allegedly launched a “smear campaign” against her after she hung up and refused to speak to Vanessa any further.
“There’s a whole narrative that is completely false that people keep spinning. They keep saying, you know, that I’m this mean girl on this set, that I harmed these people on set,” Amanda said. “I just want to point out something very basic. How can I be a mean girl on a set that ain’t my show? How?”
“It’s your show,” she continued, referring to Issa. “You are my boss. I don’t even have the capacity to be the mean girl here ‘cause you can fire me. There’s no way for me to be a mean girl in this situation.”
Amanda said she’d tried to avoid talking about the experience publicly because it was always “incredibly important” to her to “protect” Issa. “Because I know that Issa is doing something within this business that so few people get to do,” she explained. “However, there’s just been enough instances at this point, where I should have been protected by Issa, and I wasn’t.”
“She wasn’t empowering to me. She didn’t feel like I was needed,” Amanda added. “She didn’t feel like I deserved to be protected. I’m only giving a portion of the situation. But that was my experience. And nonetheless, I have still always protected her because I felt like it was my responsibility to do so. But it is not.”
BuzzFeed has reached out to reps for Issa and Vanessa for comment on Amanda’s claims. In the meantime, watch the full episode here:
Club Shay Shay /youtube.com
