Yvonne Orji on Emotions of Saying Goodbye to ‘Insecure’: “We’ve Never Seen Black Characters Like This”

In June, Insecure star Yvonne Orji shared a look via Instagram at her final moments on the series as she wrapped five seasons playing Molly Carter, the best friend to Issa Rae‘s Issa Dee.

There were hugs, tears, cake and multiple bottles popped, Orji shared with her 1 million followers. And on the red carpet at Tuesday night’s Elle Women in Hollywood celebration, the actress opened up on what the ride has meant to her, just days before HBO debuts the final season on Sunday night.

“I bawled my eyes out saying goodbye to this character that launched my career in a really beautiful way,” Orji explained. “And I said goodbye to my friends who were like family on that show. It was not make-believe. We weren’t like, ‘Oh, action!’ and then just putting something on. We really were like a family, and when the director yelled cut, we still wanted more of each other.”

She said they got an opportunity to spend some quality time thanks to Rae and the HBO marketing team, who rented out a theater at The Promenade at Howard Hughes Center for a four-day event that hosted back-to-back screenings of seasons one through four. “It was one season a day and they did an amazing job,” Orji explained. “It was a free event and there was popcorn and drinks. I sat through all of season four and Issa sat through all of them.”

Orji called it a “refresher course” for fans ahead of the new season but also another reminder just how polarizing her character can be for devoted fans. “There were real emotions in real-time as if it was their first time seeing it,” Orji said. “But they still laughed at parts that were funny and yelled at the screen in the parts they did not like — i.e., Molly’s parts.”

All jokes aside, Orji said the experience has been so completely life-changing — credit to Rae and Insecure showrunner Prentice Penny — that she and co-star Jay Ellis pondered whether they should call it quits. “I texted Jay last summer and I was like, ‘Should I retire? Are we retiring? What are we doing after this? Like, this is it right?’ When else were we going to have this kind of camaraderie, this kind of writing, these kinds of characters written for us in such nuanced and real ways?”

She continued: “We’ve never seen Black characters portrayed like this and also, the city of South L.A. as a character was portrayed so beautifully. I will do other projects and hopefully this is just the beginning, but I know that nothing will compare to this.”

Orji has stayed booked, segueing to Amazon Prime’s Yearly Departed, and she’s staying in the HBO family by hosting HBO Max’s reality dating series My Mom, Your Dad. But first, there’s the rollout of Insecure and more glasses that need to be raised.

“You already know the text chain is popping, right?” Orji said with a laugh. “Issa loves a good party and this is premiere week. We’re all going to be tired by Monday. Let’s just say that. I hope nobody has work cause it’s going to be a rough Monday.”

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