Amanda Seales has made her feelings about her former Insecure boss Issa Rae crystal clear.
During a Thursday, April 25, interview with Shannon Sharpe on his “Club Shay Shay” podcast, Seales, 42, addressed the long-standing beef between her and Rae, 39.
“I have never talked about this publicly, because it has always been incredibly important to me to protect Issa,” Seales said. “Because I know that Issa is doing something within this business that so few people get to do.”
Rae created and starred on Insecure, on which Seales costarred for all five seasons.
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According to Seales, the fracture started when she was asked to leave a 2019 pre-Emmys party for Black entertainers by Rae’s publicist Vanessa Anderson. After the incident, Rae called Seales and said she had “nothing to do” with it and insisted Seales and Anderson work out their issues themselves.
Seales could never quite grasp where the distaste stemmed from, she explained, but the simmering tension persisted for the entire time Insecure was on the air.
Despite the turmoil, Seales said she was still motivated to stand by Rae — but it eventually worked against her.
“It’s at a point now where my protecting of Issa has become turned onto me and something that people are using against me,” she explained. “There’s a whole narrative that is completely false that people keep spinning. They keep saying that I’m this mean girl on this set, that I harmed these people on this set.”
As Seales’ alleged reputation began preceding her, she said the entire notion didn’t make any sense.
“It’s your show. You are my boss,” she continued. “I don’t even have the capacity to be the mean girl here. Because you can fire me. There’s no way for me to be a mean girl in this situation.”
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The damage had already been done, claimed Seales, which allegedly resulted in the rest of the cast isolating her.
“Everybody knows what’s going on,” she said. “They don’t say nothing to me. And that’s just f–kin’ mean.”
When Sharpe referenced a conversation he had with actor and comedian Lil Rel Howery, who boasted Rae was known for being “empowering to women,” Seales pushed back.
“I disagree,” she responded. “She wasn’t empowering to me. She didn’t feel like I deserved to be protected.”
Ultimately Seales concluded, “I have still always protected her because I felt like it was my responsibility to do so. But it is not.”
Us Weekly has reached out to Rae for comment.
