Issa Rae was honored with the Entertainment Entrepreneur of the Year Award at Variety’s L.A. Power of Women event in Beverly Hills.
Presented by U.S. Bank Senior Executive Vice President Courtney Kelso, Rae shared her gratitude for the award. She also took a shot at men for gatekeeping in the industry.
“It is hard to feel like a powerful woman when men keep f**king everything up,” Rae said.
”Thank you to all the other amazing women for being so inspiring. I’m gonna be real. I don’t have an inspirational speech, she added.
She went on to explain why she thought she didn’t deserve to be honored.
“I’m so sorry. I just, I really don’t. And I heard they wanted to give me this award, and I was like, ‘Why? I haven’t done sh— this year. And my publicist just emailed me back a bunch of things that I’ve done this year, and was like, ‘B— just go,’ Rae said,
”And I was really honored that she took the time to write it out, and I was like, ‘Oh, maybe I do deserve this. Okay, I’ma go,’” she continued. “But then I was like, ‘F—! I gotta write a speech in three to four minutes. That’s so long.’ So then I just kind of forgot about it because I was working, and then I got distracted because the deadline was approaching, and the industry just keeps eating itself.”
Rae concluded her speech by saying, “Maybe that’s all any of us can do — is just figure out where we have some power and use it the f**k for good, please. So that’s what I’m going to do. I hope you guys do too.”
After breaking out with Awkward Black Girl and the hit HBO series Insecure, Issa Rae expanded her footprint by founding HOORAE Media, an umbrella company spanning film, TV, marketing, and the Raedio record label. The Emmy-nominated star of Barbie and American Fiction is also a twice-named TIME 100 honoree.