Just when you thought talk about the apparent beef between Issa Rae and Amanda Seales was yesterday’s news, a new interview has put the conflict back in the spotlight.
“The Breakfast Club” got hold of audio from a Sept. 24 event in Brooklyn for Rae’s sparkling wine brand, Viarae. In an interview during the event, Rae was asked about people she would not work with again, to which the actress/writer responded, “I mean anyone who goes on a podcast and talks shit about me!”
Rae’s answer got a huge reaction from the crowd because although she kept it cutesy and didn’t mention any names, the last person to talk ish about her on a podcast was none other than her former “Insecure: co-star Amanda Seales.
In case May feels like a million years ago, let’s refresh your memory. In her May 15 appearance on “Club Shay Shay,” Seales opened up to host Shannon Sharpe about the incident at the 2019 Emmys party incident that seemed to start it all and why she was “done” protecting Rae in the industry.
“I’ve never talked about this publicly, because it’s always been incredibly important to me to protect Issa. Because I know that Issa is doing something within this business that so few people get to do,” Seales told Sharpe. “However, there’s just been enough instances at this point where I should have been protected by Issa and I wasn’t.”
Seales goes on to add that trying to make sure Rae’s reputation wasn’t tarnished in the industry ended up costing her in the long run, as she was believed to be a mean girl on the set.
“Now it’s at a point where my protecting of Issa has become turned on to me and something that people are using against me. There’s a whole narrative that is completely false that people keep spinning,” she added.
Issa’s remarks stirred up the comment section of “The Breakfast Club” video, with folks clearly stating their position as either Team Issa (“Amanda Seales seems to have issues with everybody. Smh,” wrote someone in the comments.) or Team Amanda: (“Issa is wrong. If your publicist and an actor from your show have a problem to the point where one is having the other removed from a party and creating chaos that your name is mixed up in, you need to step in and restore order. All of that ‘My name is Bennett and I ain’t in it’ is just a way of avoiding conflict. I would have fired the publicist,” wrote another.)
But one commenter gave both actresses props for making an incredible show despite their difference: “The fact they had an amazing show despite the drama goes to their professionalism at their job,” they wrote.