Issa Rae says Black Mirror love story with Emma Corrin created "curiosity and chemistry"

Imagine stepping into the world of a favorite Classical Hollywood film and becoming the romantic lead of the story, à la Humphrey Bogart or Clark Gable. That’s the conceit in Black Mirror season 7's "Hotel Reverie" episode. Issa Rae’s Brandy Friday, a modern-day actor looking for a role worthy of her, agrees to a “remake” of the Casablanca-esque film Hotel Reverievia a new technology that allows her to enter the film in place of the male lead as the character Alex Palmer.

The Black Mirror universe, from writer and creator Charlie Brooker, investigates dystopian alternate realities exacerbated by technology’s horrors. “Hotel Reverie,” from director Haolu Wang, does just that. But there’s also a bit of hope in the interracial queer love story that has been likened to the famed “San Junipero” episode that starred Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Mackenzie Davis.

Issa Rae and Emma Corrin in Black Mirror's "Hotel Reverie" Netflix

Under the direction of the tech company rep Kimmy (Awkwafina), Brandy is caught in a glitch in the system, allowing her on-screen romance with Emma Corrin’s Dorothy (the character of Clara in the film) to blossom into a “real” love affair while time stands still around them. Though “Hotel Reverie” shines a light on the simulacrum or the idea that the entertainment business has no new stories to tell, it also hands back narratives to Black and queer people who were only allowed in the margins or coded during Hollywood’s heyday.

“I have to give credit to Charlie and his depiction and obviously his imagination, but even in the character of Dorothy, for the character of Dorothy in the episode, it shows the fact that Dorothy was queer during this time period where she couldn't really acknowledge those feelings and couldn't be who she really was. And that is what ultimately led to her demise,” Rae tells Out.

Issa Rae and director Haolu Wang on the set of Black Mirror's "Hotel Reverie" Netflix

“There's this beautiful element in my character's decision to remake this movie. Dorothy gets a chance to be who she is, even though she is this fictional character, she ultimately becomes who she's meant to be,” she adds. “And obviously the tragedy that that can only exist in one version of this glitchy film. But I just thought it was so beautiful because this love transcended time and all realms, and the tragic part is that it just couldn't really exist in reality."

Issa Rae as Brandy in Black Mirror's "Hotel Reverie" Netflix

Though Brandy is a bankable movie star, she’s finished with the limitations Hollywood has placed on her as a Black woman. “I’m tired of my only available options being noble victim or f*ckable sidekick,” she tells her agent before agreeing to the Hotel Reverie remake. A dive into Dorothy’s past reveals she was forced to hide her sexual identity to have her career.

Rae, best known for creating and starring in the groundbreaking HBO series Insecure, praises her costar Corrin, the nonbinary star of The Crown.

“It was so interesting, because obviously my character is stepping into a male role and then ultimately feels comfortable being herself, but Dorothy doesn't. I don't know what Dorothy sees — if she still sees Alex Palmer at the end of the day,” Rae says.

Emma Corrin as Dorothy in Black Mirror's "Hotel Reverie" Netflix

“But playing this with Emma was so fulfilling just because they're such a phenomenal, transformative actor. And to watch them transform and to embody this actress from the '40s was also alluring for me, where I was just like, Oh, there's such a grace and elegance and dignity that I want to emulate myself and that I want to be around and that I'm curious about. And so there was just that natural curiosity and chemistry there.”

Stepping into a male role circa the 1940s allowed Rae to sport beautiful suits, another perk of the episode. She credits the costume department's expertise.

"The suits were fire and tailored for me. I was like, ‘Can I take this blazer back, please?” she says. “The first suit I wanted to wear forever, and when I had to change, I was like, ‘All right, I guess I'll wear linen, but I wanted to live in that suit a bit longer.’”

Black Mirror season 7 is streaming now on Netflix. Watch Out's full interview with Rae above.