Editor’s note: The below interview contains spoilers for Black Mirror Season 7.
While many viewers might normally think of Charlie Brooker’s Netflix sci-fi anthology Black Mirror as a more pessimistic series overall, the creator has also offered up many more optimistic stories in the years since the show first premiered. For every episode like “The National Anthem” and “Shut Up and Dance,” there are also episodes like “San Junipero” and “Hang the DJ.” With the premiere of Season 7, now streaming on Netflix, Brooker has debuted a few more episodes in a similar vein, including “Hotel Reverie,” starring Emma Corrin and Issa Rae as a pair of actors who fall for each other in one of the most unlikely places: an AI reimagining of a classic Hollywood movie.
Ahead of the premiere of Black Mirror Season 7, Collider had the opportunity to speak with several cast and creatives about the sci-fi anthology’s return, including Rae. Over the course of the interview, which you can read below, Rae discusses her excitement about getting the call to join Season 7, what she enjoyed most about working with Corrin and building their onscreen romance, her thoughts on the episode’s bittersweet ending, and more.
COLLIDER: When it came time to be a part of this season, did you even need to know anything about the episode before agreeing to be a part of it, or did you just hear the words Black Mirror and go, “I’m in”?
ISSA RAE: It was basically that. As soon as I got the call, I was so excited. The script would have to be terrible for me to say no, and that was impossible. Then, of course, once I read it, I was like, “Yes! Yes. I got a good one.” Not that they’re not all great, but I was especially excited to be a part of this one.
Issa Rae Was “Transfixed” by Emma Corrin While Making “Hotel Reverie”

Image via Netflix

The premise of this episode really revolves around these two very unlikely people finding romance. What was your favorite part of working with Emma [Corrin] and developing that onscreen relationship?
RAE: Honestly, watching them transform. Emma is very, very different from Dorothy, and being able to get to know them behind the scenes and working with them and Haolu [Wang], the director, are some of my favorite moments because we did rehearsals and got to know each other, but then that transformation that Emma makes was crazy. I found myself being transfixed by just the slightest movement that they would take on, like the flutter of an eye.
Obviously, hair and makeup and wardrobe go such a long way, but Emma embodies Dorothy in a way where I felt like I was actually working with the ‘40s starlet. And the accent that they perfected was perfect because that was such a made-up accent during that time, this Hollywood starlet, Hollywoodland accent that British and American actors would take on. It was just really amazing to watch them perfect that.
I talked to them last week about this episode, and they said you had some fun improv games.
RAE: Oh, god, yes! [Laughs] They were really fun. I don’t know how they help. I guess they helped to build chemistry the way they did. But shoutout to our director, who made up her own games for us to play.

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‘Black Mirror’s Charlie Brooker and Jessica Rhoades Answer All Our Spoiler Questions About Season 7, From Surprising Cameos To Easter Eggs

They also discuss why the “USS Callister” sequel is even longer than the first, bringing back Will Poulter’s Colin Ritman, and more.

In terms of alternating between Hotel Reverie and the control room, do you feel like it gave you a bigger understanding of Brandy, who really starts to want to stay in Hotel Reverie instead of going back?
RAE: Absolutely. I didn’t want to leave the Hotel Reverie. I was fortunate to almost shoot the script in sequence, where I got to be Brandy at home by myself and then live in Hotel Reverie for almost a month and be with Emma, and, again, just be immersed in this world. Then I had to say goodbye to Emma in real life and just be like, “What? This is it? Our time has come to an end? I really enjoyed getting to know you.”
Then the control room scenes were just like, “Ugh! We’re back in the real world.” But of course, Awkwafina made everything better because she’s hilarious. But I really went through those emotions of, like, “Now we’re in this bleak warehouse, this gross warehouse, when I was just in Egypt. I was in Cairo having a great time in the ‘40s, and now I’m in the present with technology and with these people, and in the real world, where my life is just my life and I don’t have much agency over it in a way that I may have in Hotel Reverie.”
Issa Rae Shares Her Thoughts on the Bittersweet Ending of “Hotel Reverie”

Image via Netflix

I was curious about your thoughts on the ending of the episode and how everything plays out, because it is a Black Mirror episode, and it’s bittersweet, but there’s also something really lovely about that final scene with the two of you on the phone.
RAE: I have mixed emotions about it, even on the day. I didn’t want to see Dorothy until I was actually shooting, and I got emotional seeing her again. It was bittersweet because they’d experienced this love, and that was real to Brandy. While she was able to have this connection with Dorothy again, there was still something really lonely about it. “This is the only remnant of it that I have left, and I have to build it, and I hope that she remembers what we felt.” I can imagine that this is also how real people fall in love with AI, these things that they construct, but this was real and based off of a real character. While I was happy that she was able to establish that connection, I was sad for the memories that they don’t both share.
Given that this episode revolves around being dropped into this recreation of a classic film, if you could remake a classic movie like Brandy does — any movie at all, doesn’t matter how old — which one would you choose and why?
RAE: I would probably choose Clueless because I know that movie front to back. It would be fun. I’ve watched it over and over again. It’s a comfort movie. I could put it on any time. I could be any character. I could be Dionne, I could be Cher, I could be Travis. [Laughs] Honestly, I got it.
Black Mirror Season 7 is now available to stream on Netflix.

Black Mirror

Release Date

December 4, 2011

Network

Channel 4, Netflix

Directors

Owen Harris, Toby Haynes, James Hawes, David Slade, Carl Tibbetts, Ally Pankiw, Bryn Higgins, Dan Trachtenberg, Euros Lyn, Jodie Foster, Joe Wright, John Hillcoat, Sam Miller, Tim Van Patten, Uta Briesewitz, Colm McCarthy, Jakob Verbruggen, James Watkins, John Crowley, Otto Bathurst, Anne Sewitsky, Brian Welsh

Writers

Jesse Armstrong