Written by and starring Issa, Unsafe It followed Issa Dee, a woman about to turn 30 who is trying to figure out life in Los Angeles. The film ran from 2016 to 2021 and co-starred Amanda as Tiffany DuBois, Issa's girlfriend.
Amanda said in the interview that the problems began in 2019 after Vanessa Anderson, Issa's publicist, was denied entry to the Emmys for Black performers.
Amanda claimed on Tea Club Tea When she talked to Issa about the party two days later, Issa recommended that she and Vanessa talk. Amanda claimed that when she spoke to Vanessa, the publicist admitted that she “didn't like” the actor. Amanda also accused Vanessa of waging a “smear campaign” against her after she hung up the phone and refused to speak to Vanessa any further.
“There's a whole narrative that's completely false that people keep spinning. They keep saying, you know, I'm this mean girl in this group, that I've hurt these people in the group,” Amanda said. “I just want to point out something very basic. How can I be a mean girl in a position that's not my show? How?”
“It's your show,” she continued, referring to Issa. “You're my boss. I don't even have the ability to be the mean girl here because you can fire me. There's no way for me to be the mean girl in this situation.”
Amanda said she tried to avoid talking about her experience publicly because it was always “very important” for her to “protect” Issa. “Because I know that Issei is doing something in this business that very few people can do. However, there have been enough instances at this point, where I should have been protecting Issei, and I didn't.”
“She wasn't empowering me. She didn't feel I was needed,” Amanda added. “She didn't feel like I deserved to be protected. I'm just presenting part of the situation. But that was my experience. However, I still always protected her because I felt it was my responsibility to do so.” But that is not the case.”
BuzzFeed has reached out to representatives for Issa and Vanessa for comment on Amanda's claims. In the meantime, watch the full episode here:
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