On the surface, Rebecca Bunch has it all. She's a successful, driven lawyer, about to make partner at the firm she works at; she has the upscale Manhattan apartment and Ally McBeal wardrobe. That's until a chance encounter with Josh, an old flame, has her reconsidering life.
Josh was Rebecca's 16-year-old summer camp flame, for whom she never quite stopped carrying a torch, and he's moved to California. What to do? Impetuously throw everything away, including your mood-stabilizing medications, and follow him? Sure, why not!
And so begin the adventures of "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," which debuted on Oct. 12 on The CW.
"This is the dream," she admitted of finally having her own show. "It's amazing and I'm so lucky and fortunate, it's awesome."
"Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" can be seen in its entire musical glory Monday nights 8 p.m. EDT on The CW. To get to know its star Rachel Bloom a little better, continue reading our interview below.
What's the craziest thing you've ever done in life to create attention?
This is a boring answer, but it would be: lie to myself. I mean I've lied in my own diary; my own Internet journal where it's like, "Dear diary, I went to this restaurant tonight because I was craving Thai food." I wasn't even admitting to myself that "no, you went to this restaurant to see the guy that works at the restaurant and you're wearing your low-cut booby top." I think the lying to myself is the most pathetic thing I've ever done.
So Rebecca Bunch is a New Yorker who likes theater?
I think she's bottled it up, because she is emotionally stifled. She has Broadway CDs, and when she's alone, she listens to them, but she wouldn't tell anyone. It's just a symbol for being emotionally stunted.
Were you prepared for someone else playing this role?
No. Here's the thing: when we originally pitched the show as a network show, we thought for a hot second there is no way any network is going to let me play this role, so maybe we'll write the secondary role for myself. So thinking about the show, it was like wait, this show's not getting on a network anyway. Aline [Brosh McKenna, executive producer] was just like, "I'm thinking of you in the role," and I was like, "I'm biased because I am me." So we pitched the show to cable, because we thought it was the only place that would do this, so again it's such a joy that The CW, a broadcast network, wants to do this zany show.
Were there any alternative titles?
It was always "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend." It was just a strong title and we kind of started with the musical thing as it was a musical called "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" and it went from there.
In the pilot, Rebecca goes off her meds. Will you delving more into why she was on them in the first place?
Yes. In order to pack up your life and move to West Covina you have to be in a very bad place. It's a drastic decision and this is someone who has been numb and numbing herself for quite a long time because that's why she's not emotionally connected. She needs to be on medication, just not that much. She's dumping the pills as a symbol of, "I don't need this anymore, I have Josh. Josh is my medication now." So we actually have a whole episode that will specifically focus on her depression and anxiety.
But when she stops taking them she kind of unravels?
Well, she is someone who needs help. She absolutely does, I know some people who have been overmedicated and sometimes being on things like Adderall can kind of zombie you out in a way that doesn't really make anything better. It just makes you numb, so as someone who is very grateful for Prozac, like when you're on the right dosage, she was definitely not on the right dosage in New York and we will explore that further.
Can you talk about setting a show in your late 20s? Because you see a lot of young people that don't have their stuff together, yet Rebecca appears to.
Well she's in her late 20s early 30s, and she absolutely does. In our heads, the most dynamic change was... If you started out with a girl who didn't have her stuff together, then she goes crazy, that's not much of a show. What we wanted to explore was a girl who seemingly has the stuff together, but inside is a mess. The idea that she's college-trained and kind of done it all on autopilot, because someone else told her to be it - by her parents or pressure from everything else - but she never really got in touch with herself. She's really good at her job, and when she goes to West Covina she will also be good at her job, as though she doesn't even have to think about it, it's like XYZ, now I'm going to go and stalk Josh. So it is the opposite. I'm in my 20s and not knowing what I'm doing, but in a way she needed to do that because she never did that and she's been so driven. We're not saying that some people shouldn't do that, it was really important to us that the boss who tries to promote her at the beginning was a female figure as we're not saying women shouldn't have jobs because ultimately they're too emotional. There are some women who should absolutely be high-powered lawyers and are good at it; it was just never her decision.
Did she always want be an actress?
She did, but in the beginning of the pilot you see that at summer camp is where she was happiest because she was pursuing theater, which she's never good at. She was in the chorus and never had a strong voice, so I think theater represents all of promotion and child-like energy that she never got to indulge.
Will that musical theater energy ever make it to her real world?
It hasn't occurred to us, because I love the idea of keeping things separate for now. But she is such a theater dork at heart. I don't know how long we could ignore it.
Does this give you more freedom because you are writing your own material?
I love it. I was really fortunate to go to the school that I did and I loved going, but being specifically a musical theater major, I noticed - with comedy songs for women - a lot of the stuff was very dated. The Golden Age of musical theater was the '50s and '60s so you are singing this old-fashioned humor, and you're thinking "This isn't funny in the way I want to be." I wanted to create musical material that was fun for me to sing which was hard to find. I like to think that people use some of the songs for the show as musical theater audition songs; that would be such a huge compliment to me. I love the musical theater community.
Do you think there'll be an album of songs from the show?
I'd like to release the videos and songs every week; I think "Smash" did this, but make it into a cumulative album. I don't want to wait to release an album. I'd like to have the songs on sale right away.
Are there any other musical comedy acts you are a big fan of?
"Lonely Island" is amazing. I think people are accustomed to original music with comedy. There's a group called "The Apple Sisters" who are friends of mine, and a 1940s musical comedy group who are amazing. "Flight of the Conchords" are amazing, as is a guy called Zack Sherwin who wrote some lyrics for one of the episodes; he's an amazing comedy rapper. There are so many good musical comedians. Before I was doing the show I was hosting a show at the "Upright Citizens Brigade Theater" in Los Angeles that was with all different theater comedians.
Do have an idea of what other stories you're going to tell?
Well, you'll have to tune in, but you will meet Josh's girlfriend. A lot of attention in season one is what Rebecca tells herself she's in West Covina for versus why she's a really there. Those two things will start to knock heads more and more as she lies to herself and the lies get shallower.
How was visiting the school camp version of yourself?
That was awesome; I always wanted luxurious locks like that. I remember going to Disneyland is a kid and buying a hat with a hair. I never really grew my hair long for whatever reason, but it was cool... and that was my real retainer. It wasn't a prop. I just got out my old retainer [laughs]. I had braces for a long time as I had really bad teeth, and technically I'm still supposed to be wearing it. Just don't tell my orthodontist. I do wear a night guard now - and this is boring - I wear a night guard now for TMJ that acts as a retainer so front-page news! Night guard, TMJ! Extra, extra!
But your teeth look nice now!
Thanks to my parents for paying for braces, otherwise I would've been a pariah, more so than I already was.
