When asked whether they were “Team Issa or Team Lawrence,” several in the audience at Webster University Monday night were smart enough to yell, “Team Molly!” for guest of honor Yvonne Orji. When Orji was asked about her choice between Issa and Lawrence, she joked, “You’re trying to mess up my job!”
As she sat before the crowd at the Luhr Building November 13 in a talk presented by the Multicultural Center and International Student Affairs, Orji took them on the ten-year journey that ultimately led to her current situation as co-star in Issa Rae’s Golden Globe Award nominated hit HBO show “Insecure.”
It was 2008 and she was working on her master’s degree in public health.
“I put out a YouTube video about Obama when he was elected, and Issa was drawn to it,” Orji said.
Time passed and through social media, Orji hit Rae up because she was moving to Los Angeles. They had never talked prior to this but Issa was having a house party and invited Yvonne, who was basically a stranger. They quickly realized there was a mutual connection.
When Yvonne released her trailer for the to-be-developed sit-com “First Gen,” Rae sent it to her “Awkward Black Girl” YouTube series following. The clip became Orji’s “Insecure” audition tape.
The path to “Insecure” began when divine intervention led Orji to try standup in 2006. She was asked to compete in a beauty pageant. Hesitantly she agreed. Orji didn’t know she would be asked to perform in a talent competition. Until that moment in her life she thought she had no talent. An inner-voice – one that she called the voice of God – told her to do a comedy routine. She replied, “No.”
Orji was worried about being booed by the crowd of Africans. “We are rude!” she exclaimed. Having nothing else to present, she went ahead with the comedy act. It went especially well. The decision to perform during that pageant led Orji to her calling.
Her parents wanted her to go to medical school. No one they knew had taken the route she desired. “I moved to New York believing I was the black sheep,” Orji said. “My mom called me a jester.” She asked her family to give her time to pursue a career within the entertainment industry.
“I found a community and that’s what let me know I was on the right path,” Orji said. “I also don’t believe in taking no for an answer.”
She went out on a limb and reached out to a writer who was also a member of the Ibo tribe, a people with origins chiefly in southeastern Nigeria.
“I shot a comedy special and sent it to him. That got me an internship in a writers’ room. Then I Googled ‘writers room,’” Orji laughed. “I put myself out there before I was ready. You’re never going to be ready.”
Without confirmation of the start date for the writer’s room internship, she decided to go to Los Angeles on faith. “The day I bought my ticket is the day the work started.”
Though Orji was not in any of Rae’s run of “Awkward Black Girl,” she was asked to come in and audition for HBO because Orji reminded Rae of her best friend. Rae made no promises. “The rest is history,” Orji said.
“Insecure” is an honest representation of black culture. But she doesn’t necessarily feel a responsibility to portray such. “Not everyone sees themselves in the characters represented. But you can still be entertained and moved by it,” Orji said. “I’ll get, ‘I am Molly.’ And I’ll tell women, ‘Girl don’t say that out loud!’ But it’s good for us to see her process. That’s the beauty of Molly. She embraces her journey.”
Orji can’t wait for her stock in Hollywood to rise so she can pay her success forward.
“Once I’m in [the industry], that’s my opportunity to be what Issa was for me,” Orji said. “I’m never comfortable. I’m content and happy, but never comfortable. There’s more work to do.”
Orji shared that she’s finished her first movie with Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish, which will be released next September. And she’s still working on her show “First Gen,” about a Nigerian American family being produced by David Oyelowo.
“I’m very specific. Family friendly. Wholesome. And if it’s not there I’m going to create it,” Orji said of her image and brand. “Molly is probably who I would’ve been had I not gotten saved at 17. I can tap into the essence of her. I know the ups and downs. I’m not her specifically, but can still channel her.”
In one of the final scenes of an episode from the second season, her character is to walk to the door in lingerie.
“[Prior to this] Wardrobe gave me the selections. I’m conservative and I had to protect the brand,” Orji said. “Director Melina Matsoukas wanted to shoot me from the back and I was like, ‘Maybe no!” She chose something sexy that included a robe. “I want to leave something to the imagination for my man one day. I told Melina, I’m gonna work the heck outta this clavicle and shoulder though!”
Orji sold the modesty.
“These are the conversations I have to have. I have my vision too,” Orji said. “Know your forte. Know yourself. Know your brand.”
