Lena Waithe Discusses Reshaping Hollywood in Her Image with Vogue
"Hollywood Is Run by People Who Don’t Look Like Us’: Lena Waithe on Her New Show Them and Amplifying Marginalized Voices"
Over the course of a few short years, Lena Waithe's name has become synonymous with some of Hollywood’s most-talked-about projects, including the lovers-on-the-run thriller Queen & Slim (2019), the biting campus satire Dear White People (2017 to present), and the tender coming-of-age drama The Chi (2018 to present) and soon Them.
As a Black, queer woman, the 36-year-old from Chicago has never shied away from creating a space for her intersectional identity in her work, encouraging public debate surrounding the representation of Black artists and other minorities in the entertainment industry.
Earlier this year, Waithe partnered with Häagen-Dazs, which kicked off its #ThatsDazs campaign by donating $100,000 to her newly unveiled Hillman Grad Mentorship Lab as part of its pledge to commit $1.5 million to underrepresented voices. Waithe’s program aims to provide marginalized creators across three strands of the entertainment industry—TV writing, screen acting, and executive development—with a platform to make their mark and disrupt an industry devoid of “meaningful complex representation.”
Here, Waithe sits down with Vogue to discuss her much-hyped upcoming Amazon Prime series Them, mentoring a new generation of marginalized creators, and the importance of acknowledging trauma.
Read full interview here.
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