Issa Rae’s time on Black Mirror has been meta in several different ways, including playing an actress who wants to change Hollywood’s perceptions of her. Rae stars in the third episode of Black Mirror Season 7, “Hotel Reverie,” in which Rae’s character, Hollywood actress Brandy Friday, takes part in an extremely immersive remake of a classic British film. It’s so immersive that Brandy gets caught in another dimension and must live by the film’s script if she wants to escape. “Playing an actress who feels boxed in by how Hollywood perceives her and wants to take risks and take the reins on her career, I feel that on so many levels,” she told Trey Mangum, managing editor for Blavity/Shadow and Act. “Maybe [I] could imagine that I would, in desperation, take part in an experiment like this, but not like this exactly. It’s really bleak right now in Hollywood, and that’s also what drew me.” Why ‘Hotel Reverie’ hit home for Rae amid Hollywood’s AI conversations “That was one element that...