The cocreator, writer, and star of the CW musical comedy Crazy Ex-Girlfriend talks about juggling multiple roles, pay equality in Hollywood, and lifting the stigma around mental health.
Eight years after she became a YouTube sensation with the music video “Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury,” a satire about lusting after the nonagenarian sci-fi writer, Rachel Bloom, 31, has been pulling audiences deeper into her musical fantasies through her Emmy-winning show, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which begins its fourth and final season this month. With Aline Brosh McKenna (The Devil Wears Prada) as producer and co-creator, Bloom writes, scores, and stars in the genre-bending show, which blends drama, romantic comedy, and earworm original songs.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is unlike anything else on TV right now. You play the lead, Rebecca, who is smart and accomplished, suffers from severe mental illness, and expresses herself in musical numbers. When you and Brosh Mc- Kenna first started working together, did you have a sense of what you aimed to achieve with the show?
I wanted to question expectations that women place on themselves based on what they see in the arts and in the media. The show was always meant to be a deconstruction of romantic comedies, princess narratives, hero narratives.
How do you make a comedy about mental illness without poking fun at your character?
The nature of the show was always that [Rebecca] was literally depressed. That was definitely autobiographical because I’ve had anxiety and depression. The show’s about finding what makes you truly happy, about inner happiness. We’re always coming at [Rebecca] with compassion and [trying] to understand why she’s doing what she’s doing. Every episode is an experiment. The tone is always the hardest thing to nail, and each episode there are definitely moments where we make a change when something feels totally off.
Esta historia es de la edición October 2018 de Fast Company.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición October 2018 de Fast Company.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
THE NEW RULES OF BUSINESS TRAVEL
In the era of hybrid teams, everyone is a road warrior-not just sales teams and C-suite execs. It's part of why business travel spending is expected to finally reach, and perhaps surpass, pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year, according to Deloitte. But, as with everything, work trips are not what they were in 2019. From airlines to banks, companies are finding new ways to make business travel easier-and even a little fun.
INTELLIGENT IMPACT
BUSINESS LUMINARIES SHARE HOW AI CAN INTERSECT WITH SOCIAL MISSION.
REDDIT'S REVENGE
IN AN ERA OF AI UPHEAVAL. THE CACOPHONOUS SOCIAL HUB EMERGES AS THE HUMAN-DRIVEN INTERNET'S LAST GREAT HOPE.
SO MANY WAYS TO LOSE
In the Ozempic era, Weight-Watchers is remaking itself to be something for everyone meal-plan program and a tele-health prescription service. But have consumers already lost their appetite?
10/10 - THE 10 MOST INNOVATIVE PEOPLE OF THE LAST 10 YEARS
In honor of Fast Company's 10th Innovation Festival in September, we identified 10 industrious leaders whose groundbreaking efforts defined the past decade in business. We spoke to them about their extraordinary achievements in tech, medicine, entertainment, and more. And we explored how the impact of their work has withstood passing fads, various presidential administrations, a pandemic, and many, many quarterly reports.
The Mysterious Reappearance of the Reggie Bar
How a beloved 1970s candy got called back up to the major leagues.
Gabriella Khalil
Gabriella Khalil, creative director, answers our career questionnaire.
The Fast and the Furious
High prices at McDonald's, Taco Bell, and other chains are sparking consumer revolt.
Lost in Truncation
Lost in Truncation Generative AI was supposed to unleash our creativity. Instead, it became our cultural trash compactor. Welcome to the age of summarization.
Campus Radicals
Welcome to UATX, Austin's new well-funded and controversial anti-woke university.
