Lena Waithe

Miss Pussy's way too young.

Where's Lena Waithe to save my career? Sorry.

That's a shockingly good Aziz.

He does a good one.

Polly brings light and optimism to the depreciated town, even in the face of tragedy.

While critics were mixed on it, the film was nominated for an Emmy, and it made a real impact on younger generations, as is explained by Lena Waithe in her interview with Debbie Allen via Hillman Grad.

We're going to try not to spend two hours on it.

There's a lot of things we could spend two hours on.

But then also you gave myself something that I could hold on to, even into my adulthood.

So my question to you about Polly is, what was your vision for that TV movie?

Well, Lena, first of all, it's hard for me to just jump to that answer.

Hearing this beautiful backstory of your connection to Polly, to me, and what that did, that makes me feel so good.

The cast for this movie is absolutely insane.

It stars Ellen Burstyn, Taika Waititi, Pamela Anderson, Edgar Ramirez, Lena Waithe, Murray Bartlett, and Maika Monroe.

Yeah.

What?

But it really kinda shaped my mind around, like, marketing and branding.

Man, you know what's something that's interesting when you list those, man? I was talking to a young brother the other day at this conversation Lena Waithe was doing with Rashad Robinson.

He was asking me, man, like, "What would you tell someone who wants to enter a space like where you are, but they're having trouble getting, uh, the content to break through?" And I was like, "Man, I sense that you're skipping steps." I was like, "Have, have you read these classics?" Like, some of the things that you just outlined.

Mm.

Okay.

He attached Lena Waithe to adapt it and Steve Caple Jr. to direct it, and then sold that entire package to Searchlight.

Okay.

So that's a short story sold to a prestige indie label.

Hey

... that he's gonna launch a new video podcast, The Vic Mensa Show, and some of his guests are gonna include Chance the Rapper, Van Lathan, uh, Lena Waithe, and a bunch of others.

Now, I'm sure if you're not privy to Vic Mensa, he is an artist, and on social media, he does a lot of talking, where he drops some gems and, you know, gives us a insight on his mind and what's going on in his world.

Now, are you looking forward to this project, Mero? And what advice would you give Vic? 'Cause you do have Victory, uh, Victory Lap.

You know what I mean? Don't try to get all over the place with it.

I see by this, like, orig- like, o- like, starting run of guests, this is gonna lean very political.

You got Chance, you got Van, Leighton, and Lena Waithe.

This is gonna be very, like, political-minded, kinda, you know, progressive vibes, you know? So, you know, if that's what you're going for, lock in and keep it that way.

What made you decide that the industry needed that specific kind of community? And what has that network meant for writers who didn't think that they would make it without having something like this in their lives?

You know, Black Woman Who Brunch came from Lena Waithe, who's a very good friend of mine, and Erica Johnson, who's another good friend of mine.

The three of us, we were baby writers.

In fact, I think Lena was a staff writer, I believe.

Yeah.

But, but, uh, shout out to Lena Waithe-

I think it's-

... shout out to The Chi.

And, like, had me working on that shit.

I just fell in love with it, you know? Started studying it.

So ultimately when I linked up with Lena Waithe, I was actually bringing her a script that I was writing at the time, like getting, looking for some help and input on that.

She's also so good at that.