Issa Rae is setting the record straight about her involvement in a potential Set It Off remake. In an interview with ET, Rae sat down with her The Photograph co-star, Lakeith Stanfield, and addressed the remake rumors.
“Oh, I would never remake a classic,” Rae says. “I don’t know where that came from.”
Back in September, it was reported that Rae and her team at Issa Rae Productions would be producing a remake of the 1996 crime thriller. The rumors were met by criticism from fans and the actual actresses from the original film. Vivica A. Fox, who played Frankie in the film, said the original film should be left alone.
“It’s a classic, leave it alone,” she told “ET Live” back in November. “There’s absolutely no reason to try to redo it. It’s been done, and we did it so well, that people are absolutely going to compare it to that and I think that’s her taking on a tremendous chore because that film has become a cult classic and some things are just better left.”
She continued, “If you want to do a new film about girls robbing banks, create your own thing. You can make it up to date. We did that film in 1996. We are in 2019, going into 2020. So, create your own thing because people are absolutely going to compare it to it, and she’ll probably, if it’s not good, they’re going to slay her for it.”
Rae is currently promoting her new film, The Photograph. She plays Mae, who is the estranged daughter of a famous photographer that falls in love with Michael, played by Stanfield, who is a journalist that is assigned to cover her late mother. The Photograph hits theaters Valentine’s Day weekend.
Click here to watch Rae talk about the Set It Off remake rumors.