-Our first guest is
an Emmy-nominated actress and writer you know from
her hit HBO series, "Insecure."
She both executive produced and stars in "The Lovebirds,"
which is available this Friday on Netflix.
Here's my conversation with Issa Rae.
-Welcome back to the show, Issa. How are you?
-I am doing great. How you doing?
-I'm doing very well.
Do you have a quarantine schedule?
Do you have a way through the day?
-That's the only way that I'm surviving.
I'm such a routine person, in general.
So this has been like heaven and hell simultaneously.
-[ Laughs ]
-So as long as I keep that routine, I'm all right.
-Like a lot of people, I've been listening
to a fair amount of podcasts through this.
And I heard you on a podcast called "The Rewatchables"
with Bill Simmons where you were talking about "Groundhog Day"
is one of your favorite movies.
Do you feel as though you're living through that now?
-Yeah, definitely. I think -- you know, which is --
That's one of the greatest movies of all time,
one of my favorite movies,
and it was such a treat to talk about that.
But it is like you're waking up with the same alarm
every single day, going to the same parts of your house.
The only sad part is that there are consequences for my actions.
-Yeah, of course. [ Both laugh ]
Were you always --
Have you always been a big Bill Murray fan?
-I have.
I mean, I grew up on "Ghostbusters."
Yeah, he's just always been a staple.
Seeing him on "Saturday Night Live,"
obviously, he's just -- he's a treat.
-He is a treat.
Another treat is Kumail Nanjiani,
and you guys did this film together.
It was supposed to premiere at South by Southwest.
Of course that was one of the many things that was cancelled.
Now it's gonna premiere on Netflix.
Can you tell us a little bit about the movie?
-Yeah, the movie is about a couple that is --
kind of reached a stagnant point in their relationship
and are going out on, you know, a night --
They're going on a night out.
And they are framed for murder, like those things happen.
-[ Laughs ] It's good, though.
Sometimes a couple needs to be framed for murder
to appreciate one another.
-Just to spice things up.
Like, you know, things get boring.
And I want to know what you're like
when our lives are on the line.
-There is -- Theres a horse in the film.
This was not a real horse
throughout the course of the film.
There was some fake horsing happening.
-There was some fake horsery, for our safety --
for Kumail's safety. -Yeah.
-You know -- you see him, in the trailer, gets kicked by a horse.
And I made sure, when the real horse was there,
that I kept distance from it.
-I'm like you 100%.
I never feel comfortable around horses.
I don't -- not even -- Have you ridden on a horse?
Is that something that seems relaxing to you at all?
-No. Relaxing? No.
I've done the side horse thing, but even that,
someone was holding my hand and guiding me.
But no. Have you ridden a horse?
-Yeah. I have ridden a horse,
and I hated every second of it.
And it's not -- I mean, like, I --
I just don't like that another brain is in charge of my speed.
-Exactly. And you're just supposed to
give your faith to this -- It's an animal.
-Yeah. -And there's not even like --
You know, there's no reasoning with it,
so it can do whatever it feels like.
So it's horrifying.
-A lot of attention, for my money, correctly so,
has been paid to the transformation of Kumail,
who has for a long, long time
been one of the funniest people working.
And then, he got cast in a Marvel project
and now has the most super-ripped body of all time.
I'm wondering if, on set for this film,
which was before that, he shot his Marvel project,
was Kumail very, I imagine, conscious to what he was eating?
-He was conscious.
He had just started the journey.
And, to me, that's heaven, because I'm a fad diet,
crash diet person, so I'm always doing something.
So to meet a guy who was just as food conscious as I was --
That doesn't mean I do well.
I just like to try different things.
-Sure, and it's nice to have a partner for that journey.
-It's nice to have an accountability partner.
But he really just took it to another level,
and I'm extremely jealous of him.