Issa Rae: ‘Forgetting Is Essential to Being a Woman in Hollywood’

In her introduction for ELLE Women in Hollywood honoree Issa Rae, Keke Palmer said Rae “doesn’t just want to entertain you, she wants to make you think.” No sentence better sums up Rae’s career so far—and all that is yet to come.

Palmer touched on how Rae’s mentorship changed her life. “I know there’s this old saying about how you should never meet your heroes. Let me tell you—in this case—you really, really should,” Palmer said. “I recently launched my own production company and network, Key TV, and Issa Rae has been my mentor and role model in this space. Seeing how she crafted her way into the traditional space, with her own spin—her own creation from digital—knew I no longer had to ask anyone to let me in, I had the keys to unlock the doors myself, just by going for it and doing me. Issa is a multitasker, a great actress, an exceptional writer and—yes—a mogul. She also happens to look just like me. She showed a generation of Black women what is possible. And what is possible is EVERYTHING.”

In her humorous yet poignant speech, Rae likened being a woman in Hollywood to new mothers forgetting the pain of childbirth after having a baby. “How do you forget what I imagine, as a childless person, is this extremely memorable thing? And then I realized you forget, so that you’ll do it again,” she said, half joking.

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“And that kind of forgetting is essential to being a woman in Hollywood to me,” the Insecure, TV mogul, and Emmy winner continued on a serious note. “Forgetting the anxiety, the disrespect, the objectification, the scrutiny, the sexism, the racism…and so much of the other fucked up shit we forget about solely to persist, and prosper, and do it all again.”

Read her speech in full below:

Keke Palmer, Keke, you are the most entertaining woman in the world. And I just, thank you for existing. If you are lucky enough for Keke Palmer to know who you are, you should feel blessed. She doesn’t know many of you, but, I feel blessed, thank you. That’s an award in and of itself.

I never know what to say at these, so to get a sense of what to write, I emailed my assistant. I said, “Hey, what’s the award I’m getting?” And she wrote back, “Women in Hollywood award.” She was in the other room, but I didn’t feel like getting up to talk, so I wrote back, “No, that’s the name of the event, like, is there a specific award?” And she in turn replied, “Let me get back to you with some answers.” And for the record, she is a woman in Hollywood and she’s great. And a few hours later, she wrote back, “Your award is the Women in Hollywood award, anything else?” I said, “Nope, thanks!” I support and listen to women, but no, she could not be right about that. Then she sent me links to Jennifer Hudson and Rita Moreno and Halle Berry, and I was like, “Oh, okay I get it, it’s like a celebration of being a woman and making it in this Hollywood shit,” which, I accept. Thank you.

I actually hosted this event like three years ago but I forgot! I forgot how much time I spent preparing, and being in my head; I forgot how nervous I was before I hit the stage. Even thinking about it now, I’m like how can I forget all that? How can I forget all that anxiety that I experienced? It reminds me of how women who’ve given birth say they’ve forgotten about all the terrible pain they endured shortly after. Which, as a supporter and listener of women as I previously said, I have to say I don’t believe that. I don’t believe…How do you forget what I imagine, as a childless person, is this extremely memorable thing? And then I realized you forget, so that you’ll do it again.

And that kind of forgetting is essential to being a woman in Hollywood to me. Forgetting the anxiety, the disrespect, the objectification, the scrutiny, the sexism, the racism, the excessive exclamations, the mansplaining, the double standards, the limitations, the undermining, the doubting, the pitting against, the dumbing down, the gaslighting, and so much of the other fucked up shit we forget about solely to persist, and prosper, and do it all again.

And I feel like spaces like these are opportunities to remember and celebrate one another for making it this far. So thank you ELLE, for the unpleasant memories I guess. [Laughs] Congratulations to everyone here who I support and listen to, congratulations on being here in spite of. And thank you so much for celebrating me. I hope to make it as an old woman in Hollywood where I’ll jump for the chance to be looked at, much less celebrated. Thank you all so much.