Issa Rae would never want to be President of the United States. But she loves being president of Barbie Land. “It doesn't need much work, it's perfect,” Rae tells Teen Vogue. “You're just adding cherries on top of tasty sundaes.”
Rae plays President Barbie in the highly-anticipated live-action Barbie movie, directed and co-written by filmmaker Greta Gerwig. When the ever-perfect Barbie, played by Margot Robbie (who is also a producer on the film), is presented with an opportunity to visit the real world and leave her utopian Barbie Land behind in a search for a true sense of self, she and her friends embark on an epic, hilarious, surprisingly philosophical journey that could honestly rival The Odyssey.
Robbie and Ryan Gosling lead an ensemble cast of dolls; it seems as though half of Hollywood was tapped to bring these iconic toys and their world to life, with stars like America Ferrera, Hari Nef, Ncuti Gatwa, Michael Cera, Dua Lipa, John Cena, Ritu Arya, Alexandra Shipp, Nicola Coughlan, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Simu Liu, Kate McKinnon, Will Ferrell, and of course, Issa Rae, on the billing. With a marketing budget that seems to have no cap and such a large, high-profile cast, Barbie is expected to be the biggest movie of the summer, if not the entire year.
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Issa Rae sat down with Teen Vogue to unpack the hype and discuss which public figures she took inspiration from for her role as President Barbie, getting her own Barbie doll, what the film taught her about dying, and her favorite song off of the Barbie soundtrack.
Teen Vogue: Tell me the story of how you came on board this project, and what your first reaction was when reading the script.
Issa Rae: My reps called me and said that Greta wanted to meet with me about the Barbie movie. I was immediately excited because I'm such a fan of hers, and I was like, "Oh, what's the script?" And they were like, "She wants to explain it to you before you read it." And I was like, "…Okay."
So we had a meeting, and in that meeting she described her vision of the movie and was giving [me] a bunch of disclaimers and I was a little bit confused. But in that meeting I was able to make out that, one, she wanted me to play President Barbie, and two, that it seemed like the movie was going to be very funny. So I got the script and once I read it, I absolutely loved it and thought it was so smart and it was so well done and self-aware. I was just excited that she thought of me. I'm such a fan of Margot and Ryan Gosling, so the more announcements I saw about who's going to be in it, my excitement grew.
TV: Who in your inner circle was most excited once they found out you were a part of this movie?
IR: I have to say probably my friend Jerome. He is a big [Barbie] enthusiast and he's just very camp and we all love Greta, so he was excited to see what it was about. But all my friends were super excited for me — especially when those posters dropped, which I thought were actually genius. I have to admit, I didn't think that they were genius, at first. I was like, "These posters look kind of campy. I don't know what they're doing with this but… I guess." The fact that they took off and people started making them their own was just like, "Oh, thank you!" I wasn't prepared for how many people identify with Barbie and how many people are ready for this movie.
TV: Is that excitement overwhelming?
IR: If this were my movie that I had made myself, I would be terrified! I'm terrified of hype and I like people to go in with no expectations for things that I do. But given that it's not [mine], and I have so much faith in Greta, and obviously I've seen [the movie], I'm just excited that people are excited. But I still maintain that I think people should go in with no expectations because people all have their thoughts and desires of what Barbie and the Barbie movie should be, and I feel like it'll either meet those expectations or give you something completely different. It's just best to go in with an open mind.
TV: Speaking of hype, Barbie has arguably been the best kept secret of the year. Before this film, was there any other project that required you to be as tight-lipped on this level?
IR: Across the Spider-Verse in the Marvel world. I didn't even have the whole script. I saw the movie for the first time days before everybody else saw it. So I didn't even know the arc of my character, especially towards the end, and I was surprised myself, like, "Huh, what? Am I on the wrong side?" So that was a surprise for me. But generally I tend to be tight-lipped about my own things, but nobody cares enough for it to be tight-lipped.
TV: You've spoken about how Greta left it up to all the Barbies to craft their characters' personalities. What inspirations, influences, or reference points went into crafting your Barbie, the president? Did it go beyond Christie (the first Black Barbie), into Michelle Obama territory?
IR: Yeah, it did. We were thinking about some of the, I guess, presidential adjacent figures, and Michelle Obama was definitely one of them. Kamala Harris was one of them. I was thinking about the German leader [Angela Merkel], just [in] how people present — but then also the childhood version of what I thought a leader would be. It was tapping into who six to eight-year-old me thought a female president would look like, and living in that world really informed how I played the president.
TV: Would you ever run for president yourself?
IR: No! Why would anybody want... I don't get it. You're blamed for everything. You can't do anything right. You have no time. You're constantly having to meet with people about serious things. No! No. I would be this president. I would be President of Barbie Land in a minute because it doesn't need much work, it's perfect. You're just adding cherries on top of tasty sundaes.
TV: Right, and using giant hairbrushes. Period.
IR: [Laughs] Yes, exactly.
TV: Were there any parts of President Barbie that stayed with you after filming wrapped?
IR: I just loved the Barbie wardrobe, the costumes so much. Our Barbies go on such a journey from the start of the movie towards the end. We go through decades and we go through themes and, if anything, that stayed with me. And it is an honor to be seen as the President of Barbie Land. I don't know how many votes she got, if it was unanimous, how new her term is, if there are term limits… but I'm holding onto that.
TV: The film leans into the silly and playful nature of these dolls in the best way possible, and your filmography has always celebrated humor. Why is that so important to you?
IR: I think humor is the best way to reach people. It's not necessarily universal because everybody has their own sense of humor, but for me, that's the best way that I'm able to communicate, even [with] serious matters. I think that even the saddest situations, my family has found the humor in those situations. Black people always found the humor in situations. I think it'll be a part of everything that I do because that's honestly life. Most people don't like to sit in sadness for long — you're looking for a reprieve. Even dramatic situations call for a bit of irony or just general humor. And I'm always down to mine that.
TV: And if this were a “serious” Barbie movie, do you think you still would've joined?
IR: Because it's Greta, likely yes. Again, I'm such a fan and I feel like if it were a serious movie, there would still be elements of humor. Honestly, a serious Barbie movie would be funny whether it wanted to be or not.
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TV: Right. So you have your own Barbie doll now. Did they send you a bunch of them or were you only able to get one? What did you do with it?
IR: Oh, I have a couple of President Barbies and they're actually on my shelf at my office right now. But I want to take one out [of] the box and one to display. I want to give one to my niece, but… [Laughing] I gave them a Spider-Verse toy and they already f*cked it up so quickly. It was like, they ripped it out the box, they were like, "This is Auntie!" And they just threw it on the floor, it was on the ground when I left… so I'm going to wait a little bit to give them a President, just for my own feelings.
TV: For your own ego, I understand.
IR: Yes. They cared for two seconds, and then it was done.
TV: What did making this film teach you as an actor and what did it teach you as a director?
IR: Well, oh my gosh, so much. I'm glad you asked that. One of the reasons I did want to be a part of this — and I set a goal for myself at the end of last year — [was] that I want to be in more ensemble projects because I want to learn from actors that I admire, who I'm fans of, just to get a sense of their processes. And this was such an education because there were so many talented people involved in this movie. I got a chance to play alongside most of them and watch them from a distance between takes, watched them find their characters and improv and all those things. Whenever I work with someone, I tend to take things from them and take notes.
Then Greta, as a director, I say it time and time again that this is one of the best sets, if not the best set I've been on. She just has such an open, loose, fun, thoughtful, caring approach to directing where the set feels like a genuine playground, where she's laughing off to the side during takes. It's so encouraging and it just felt very safe. [From] her, I learned like, “Oh, maybe I don't want to be a director because I won't ever enjoy it as much as she enjoys it.” She has so much fun. She's an actor's director, but she's also so visual in the way that she communicates things. She's like an encyclopedia of references. So, I don't know, if anything it made it more intimidating, but I would love to work with her again.
TV: The film is quite existential, thematically. Did it make you think anything in particular about being alive, or, on the other hand, dying?
IR: I always think about dying, all the time. That is just a daily thought. So the being alive and the appreciating and the not being limited and the opportunity — I've always kind of shared that sentiment. But there was something so interesting about watching this doll, who's been confined to this environment and not knowing anything else, decide to not be a part of that, decide to free herself from that. There's something so beautiful [about that] that made me a bit emotional, [Barbie] just experiencing life for the first time. It was so childlike and there's such a childlike innocence that we forget that we once had. It made me appreciate so many of the moments that I cherish in my own life and what's to come. I always think about how there's little time left, but I have to be appreciative of the time that I just have, period.
TV: If you had to name three similarities between filming Barbie and filming season 2 of Rap Sh!t, what would they be?
IR: Lots of women everywhere. The soundtrack is fire. And I would say lots of wigs. Wigs on wigs on wigs.
TV: What is your favorite song from the Barbie soundtrack, if you've been able to hear the whole thing?
IR: When I heard the end credits song, when I had my little personal screening, I lost my mind. I was like, “They did get Nicki!” And Ice Spice is on it, and they remade “Barbie Girl,” the Aqua song… that was insane to me. That is my clear favorite. We danced to the Dua Lipa song, but we danced to the instrumental. I loved being a part of that, too, but hands down: Nicki and Ice Spice on that song.
TV: Yeah, taste. And what location of the Barbie set was your favorite?
IR: The beach. I love the beach so much because we shot in London, and London is... I don't know what London's problem is, but it is very rainy, it is foggy, it was kind of cold. We shot in spring and it just wouldn't give me the sun that I crave. Walking onto that Barbie set, the beach set where it had an artificial sun, it was warm, it was inviting. I just wanted to lay there on the beach chairs forever. It was so beautiful. Even though the sand — wearing heels and wedges on that sand was absolutely dangerous. I rolled my ankle a couple of times, because the sand does not move, it's just blocked. It's so hard to walk on. But I love that set.
Barbie arrives in theaters everywhere on July 21, 2023.
