'It was terrible': Issa Rae opens up on her 'Barbie' dance sequence and describes it as her 'worst nightmare'

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Issa Rae has recalled her Barbie dance sequence.

The 39-year-old actress spoke with The Hollywood Reporter along with the stars of her Max comedy series 'Rap Sh!t,' KaMillion and Aida Osman, to walk through a variety of predictions for the upcoming 2024 Grammy Awards ahead of the February 4 music industry awards ceremony.

When asked to predict a winner for the Best Song Written for Visual Media category, which includes Dua Lipa's hit song 'Dance the Night' from the 'Barbie' movie, Rae mentioned the challenge she faced in learning choreography for the major dance sequence associated with the track.

Rae says it 'was the worst day of my life'

"Dancing to it was my worst nightmare. It was the worst day of my life," she said. "It was the best day of my life being on that set. It was exciting, and then literally the first day, I had to learn the choreography to shoot the [following] day. And it was terrible."'

'Dance the Night' can be heard early on in 'Barbie' as Margot Robbie's Barbie throws a party at her home. Rae's character, President Barbie, dances along to the song with a number of Barbies, Kens and other characters.

Rae additionally noted that 'Dance the Night' was not fully complete when the production filmed the elaborate dance sequence.

"We also didn’t have the lyrics to the song," she told the outlet with a laugh. "[Filmmaker Greta Gerwig] was like, 'Oh, it’s going to be a Dua Lipa song,' But all we had was the instrumental, so I was just like, 'What the f--- is this? What am I dancing to?'"

The song is nominated at the Grammys

The Dua Lipa-Mark Ronson collaboration is nominated at the Grammys alongside three other tracks from 'Barbie' in Bille Eilish's 'What Was I Made For?' and Ryan Gosling's 'I'm Just Ken,' as well as Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice's 'Barbie World.'

Eilish's song previously won Best Original Song In A Motion Picture at the 2024 Golden Globe Awards. The four movie tracks are nominated alongside Rihanna's 'Lift Me Up,' which appeared in 2022's 'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.'

"And for that, I want 'Barbie World' to win because I didn’t have to dance to that," Rae told THR, throwing her Grammys support behind Minaj and Ice Spice's track.

Rae's Barbie character is introduced as the "President of Barbie Land." Her character returns to that office by the end of the movie, which features a temporary takeover of Barbie Land by many of the Kens, led by Ryan Gosling, featured in the film.

During an appearance on 'The View' in December, Rae shared, "People will call me President Barbie when I'm just out on the street."

"I didn't know how much that would mean to me," she said at the time. "I'm like, 'Oh, salute, yes!'"