Recently, Issa Rae revealed that she didn’t feel like her body was “Barbie Ready”, despite the excitement surrounding the new Barbie movie.
In a recent interview with Glamour, the actress who portrayed President Barbie in Greta Gerwig’s production shared that she had “let herself go” after completing her work on “Insecure” and the latest season of “Rap Sh!t”. Despite being offered the role, she initially had reservations about accepting it.
“…I got the call to do Barbie and was like, ‘Oh, no, I am not Barbie-shape ready.’ But then I realized Greta’s Barbie world consists of all body types. So, while I was still on my fitness journey, I felt less insecure about my Barbie body or lack thereof,” she told Glamour.
Rae admitted she was worried about how the other Barbies in the movie were going to look. However, Rae applauded Gerwig for her efforts to make sure a wide range of body types and sizes were represented in Barbie Land.
“There were so many different types of Barbies, and so many different types of Kens. Some able-bodied, ages, genders. Greta did her best to try to include everybody. Barbie Land is perfect. Everyone in Barbie Land is a perfect Barbie. I found that so beautiful. Almost everyone in the world is represented in some way here,” Rae stated. “That’s not an easy piece. I’m sure someone might be like, “Where am I?” But know that there was such an effort made to have Barbie Land be inclusive,” she continued.
Over time, Issa Rae has been open and vocal about her fitness journey and the strides she has made. In 2019, she had a conversation with Women’s Health magazine where she talked about the reasons why she chose her new life path and adopted a new routine. She said after seeing herself on the screen, it motivated her to lose weight.
“Time to work out is so limited, but when I first started seeing myself on TV, I was like, ‘I gotta make time,” she said.
However, she was honest to admit that stepping into a fitness routine was not a simple task. She talked about the excuses she would make for herself in order to avoid exercising and the reasons why she would do that.
“I was a big excuse person when it came to exercising and eating right. I’d have spurts of trying to work out and being good. Then once I