Lena Waithe: Michelle Obama Made Me Proud to Be a Black Woman

Antonia Blyth
Updated
Photo credit: Getty
Photo credit: Getty

From ELLE

With the Obamas officially on their way out of the White House, one person hit hard by the loss is Master of None's Lena Waithe.

"I feel horrible! I hate it!" Waithe told ELLE.com at the ELLE Women in Television event in Los Angeles. "I don't know if I can explain the connective tissue I feel to that family. When I get nervous I look at pictures of Barack Obama and Michelle Obama about how to be and how to walk in the world, how to hold my head high. Michelle Obama is a queen, in a word, and I honor her. She makes me proud to be a black woman. She, to me, is up there with Jackie Kennedy."

The actor and writer had tweeted, "Say what you want about the southside of Chicago, but just remember it produced Michelle Obama!" Particularly apropos, since Showtime just picked up The Chi, the show she wrote about life on the South Side, where she (and Michelle Obama) grew up. "It's exciting," Waithe said. "Showtime-they've been so phenomenal. It's not lost on me how historic it is. There hasn't been a black drama on Showtime, so no pressure!"

But she's more than up for the challenge. And she is particularly driven to show people the reality behind the South Side's negative image. "I really want to get it right," she said. "There's been a lot said about the city...the dehumanization of the African-American man, particularly on the South Side of Chicago, so I just want to humanize them and show the humans behind the headlines. Just because the city happens to be riddled with violence doesn't mean those lives aren't valid."

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Waithe has her own unwelcome experience of working against stereotype. "There are times where I feel like I can be shut out, or someone can not want to include me in things because I'm a black woman," she said, "and I've felt it a lot. It's a weird feeling and it's not fun, but I always found a way to rise above it. I think the best way to do that is to do the work, to put my head down and continue to be the best. That's the way to really rise above prejudice. The fact that we have to run twice as fast to get half as far is still an unfortunate reality of this world, but that doesn't stop us from running, it doesn't stop us from being the best, the strongest, the greatest, because if that's what we've got to do to inspire the next generation, then let's do it."

Every time Waithe has felt sidelined or ignored, it just pushed her to work harder. "You have to be the greatest. It's not always fun but the reason why Beyoncé is Beyoncé is because she's frickin' Beyoncé! She's like, 'I've got to be phenomenal to get to this level'-same with Michelle Obama."

Many of us first fell for Waithe when she took on the role of the scene-stealingly charismatic Denise in Master of None. In April, fans will get another binge-worthy dose-this time with a key episode cowritten by Waithe, and guest star Angela Bassett playing Denise's mom, an experience Waithe said was "phenomenal."

All in all, Waithe is definitely her own woman. But she's not upset when people call her "the black Lena Dunham." "Eventually I'll be called just 'the regular Lena Waithe,'" she said, "but until then, it's a compliment. I love Lena so much. I'm so excited about the last season of Girls."

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