- This is the first time in,
I want to say, maybe a month
that I've even bothered to put makeup on.
- Well, I'm gonna say you're not wearing a hoodie.
It's amazing.
It's funny because I thought
we agreed it was going to be a casual thing
and like, I'm looking like I got my cup of morning coffee.
I look like I just woke up.
- Said Mr. 'GQ Australia.'
Yeah, yeah.
- Threw me under the -
Okay, 'Harper's Bazaar.' All right.
- [Yvonne] So, Alexander as Andrew
is dating Molly,
and then Alexander as Alexander in real life
is also dating a Black girl.
How much of your actual relationship did you pull from
to tap into Andrew?
- Not really much. You know my girlfriend.
You know that you and her are not the same person.
So it's like, how can I treat Molly
like my girlfriend. You know what I mean?
- Yeah.
- And also that's my real life relationship.
I'm not gonna air my real life relationship,
you know, sort of struggles on
international television.
So like, not really much at all.
There were little things, like, you know,
this morning I helped my girlfriend put shea butter
on after her shower, you know what I mean?
- Of course you did. - The little things like that.
Where it's like, what happens naturally when you are dating
or in a romantic relationship with a Black woman,
there are certain things like,
you're gonna get a mouth full of a silk scarf
every night when you go to sleep.
That's just, that's just the rules.
That's how it goes.
- I just want you to know that
every Black girl watching this right now is like,
"Did he just say he helped shea butter --
"Oh my god!
"Like, he put shea butter on her?
"Ah!
"He is goals."
So, just --
- I go through so many white T-shirts,
you have no idea.
- You said you've gone through so many white T-shirts?
- So many.
This is the things they don't talk about.
- I'll never forget when we first met, you had a whole plate of food.
That was, that was,
I had never eaten food at an audition before.
And you've showed me the way. - Wait, no, no, no,
'cause that's gonna sound rude. You gotta set it up, man.
This is, this is Alex.
- OK, OK, OK.
What actually happened was--
- Thank you.
- I will say that
Yvonne, Issa, and Prentice all rolled in
after a busy day of shooting.
It was lunch time,
and so everyone came in with their plates
because everyone had been shooting
for however long that was,
might've been 10 hours already.
So, the fact that like, I met everybody on their
tiny, tiny lunch break.
- It wasn't even cute food.
It was like ribs and like--
- It was finger food. It was saucy finger food.
And so, we're doing this scene,
which I think it was one of the first
dates that Andrew and Molly go on.
Yeah, so we started the scene,
we kind of just got into it
and you're mid-mouthful
and I open my mouth and you nearly spat your food out.
- I was like, wait, the Asian is Australian?
They were like, no, no, he's gonna have,
he's not gonna have an Australian accent
I fought for the Australian accent.
- Yvonne pushed hard for an
Australian Andrew.
- Because when you told me that there were so many Asians
in Australia, I was like, "That's something we can explore."
and Issa was like, "No, hoe.
"You just want an 'exotic'--"
- It's not our job, it's not our job.
- I tried so hard and she was like,
Molly would go for the Asian that has an accent.
Let her just go for the straight Asian.
I was like, aight whatever.
I'm like, Molly is,
she trippin'.
So, let's talk about, first of all,
let's go back and talk about this scene
where we were at the bowling alley
because I just want everyone to know, for the record, that
that spare,
that was the--
You tell them, you tell them.
- Look, I'm just gonna say that Yvonne is
talented at many, many things.
She's a phenom when it comes to so many things-
Comedy, infectious personality, writing, everything
except bowling. Bowling is not one of those things.
- Wow.
- I'm gonna be honest.
But we did get one shot.
(laughing)
- You are a jerk.
- The gods of bowling had prevailed
and Yvonne rolled that one ball down
and it was a thing of beauty.
- I believe that was the shot that we used.
- It was scripted that Molly gets a spare
and
on the first take,
Molly got a mother f-ing spare.
And everyone was like, woah!
Like, she did it!
And I was like, give that to me. Give that.
And then I didn't do it again after that.
- But when you got that spare,
I gotta say, like it was one of the most like,
sincerely beautiful moments of joy.
- Yeah. - So like,
I feel like that shows up in it,
and so what I will say about Molly
after seeing that scene is that it is like, you know,
she's gracious in victory
and then we really didn't see her in defeat
Molly is not the type to accept defeat in anything.
- (laughing)
- Right. Fair enough.
Do you think that you represent anybody or any community
or any type of group of people
with the work that you do on the show?
- The core and the centerpiece of the show
is representing a different type of
young, Black experience, right?
I think that very rarely do we get to see Black people exist
just as regular human beings
who are successful, who are trying to figure it out,
who are multilayered, who
you know, without any extra sauce being put on them.
You know, it's just like we're messy, but we're also bosses,
and we're in therapy and you know, we have relationships.
So, it's just like I think the crux of the show is showing,
is representing a Black dynamic,
a Black friend dynamic. You know, I think
even when the show started,
it was like two dark skinned Black girls on TV
at the same darn time? Like, what?
You know, and I think as the seasons have progressed,
you know, we are unpacking
different types of representations.
Like, Tiffany's having a baby,
like, how does that change a group dynamic?
You know, things that people experience everyday,
but maybe they don't talk about as much
or as nuanced as we are.
Even like, with the men in the show,
like, Daniel's character.
It's like, you show a guy who in one sense
feels very on point and then in another sense
is super vulnerable and super insecure, dare I say.
When you think about dating
and dating profiles and dating apps,
a lot of times they would say that like,
Asian men and Black women were the least,
"the least desirable."
And I think part of our two characters
getting together this season is like,
"No, let's break that."
Because you have two very good looking individuals
with very good jobs that are very educated,
and now we're just trying to figure out what they want,
regardless of what society wants for them.
But, I think to your point,
you're an Asian sex symbol
like, whether you want to agree to it or not,
as the dimples get deeper.
But you're seen, you know when most Asians are seen on TV,
you can speak to this, they're the tech guy, you know.
- Yeah, I mean, look I've done my fair share of those roles
and it is, like unfortunately that's something that we
do have to really work on gathering right now and
thankfully we're having a bit of a Renaissance moment
right now in terms of Asian representation on screen,
which is really great.
But I feel like it's definitely
in keeping with this show, like you said,
it explores so many nuances about the existence in humanity
of who we are as people of color,
specifically Black people and now exploring into Asian
humanity, which I think is amazing.
It sort of really cool just to be able to see this dude
who kind of doesn't really
match up to all the mainstream
Asian representation we've seen in the 20th century.
And so, you know seeing this guy rockin' Jordans and
Raf Simons and stuff like that.
- Yo,
Andrew dresses fresh.
- His wardrobe, I want his wardrobe.
- Shout out to Shiona.
- I'm in there talking to costumes like,
"Alright, what can I take away? What's my little piece?"
It's just so refreshing. I feel like as someone who is a fan
of the show before joining the show,
I never expected it to take this journey, you know.
I never expected to see an Asian person on 'Insecure'
in the way that we are now seeing it.
And that's not because like, you know
oh, there's no hope, but it's just like,
I just didn't think that that was the story that this was telling
and the fact that it went in this direction and
maintained the integrity of humanity above all else
really has been the most incredible part of it,
and I think that's why people are responding
to the character and like, doing the whole hashtag thing, so.
- And I think people are open in terms of like, who they date now,
you know. You will have your Black girls who are like,
"I want Black kids, I want a Black man,"
and it's like, yes and
by the grace of God, you can have that too.
And I think there are some people who are like,
"Well, I just want a guy that makes me laugh
"or makes me happy and treats me nice."
And it's just like,
- Yeah.
"Yep, well I can have that too,
"in whatever shade it comes in."
That's I think what the show does.
It opens people up to say like,
"What is it that you're really after?
"And if the core things are there,
"then what does it matter what package it comes in?"