Issa Rae is no stranger to the voiceover game. But the actress admits that taking on the role of Spider-Woman in the highly anticipated animated Marvel sequel, Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse was quite a different beast.
Rae, an admitted Spider-Man fan, was elated to get the opportunity to voice Jessica Drew, known as Spider-Woman in an alternate Spider-Verse, who is not only open about her identity (she doesn’t even wear a mask while crimefighting), but is somewhere in her early third trimester of pregnancy while kicking crime where it hurts.
Since Rae is known for her deadpan humor and emotive awkwardness on-screen, losing her ability to act with her facial expressions was a challenge while voicing the animated character – but one whose result she ended up being extremely pleased with.
“Obviously you have to rely so much more on your vocal instrument,” Rae told ESSENCE of acting purely with her voice. “I’m such a big facial expression person, so not feeling certain that they’d be able to replicate that onscreen [left me curious] how are they going to make her look while saying this? Will this come across? It was a challenge, but it was so much fun, and it’s so much fun to see on the big screen.”
Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse is in theaters everywhere now.