Who Wrote It?
by: Adam Yuster
Article 2: Interview with Rachel Bloom, NYU Graduate and Golden Globe-Winning Creator/Star/Writer of the CW’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Screenwriters don’t just write movies. Technically speaking, the word “screenwriter” is an umbrella term for those who write scripts for all visual media, be it film, TV, video games, etc. Writers of film tend to receive most of the credit, but the contributions of TV writers cannot and should not be overlooked—especially now, during what has been proclaimed by countless news outlets and TV aficionados as the Golden Age of Television. In fact, some have stated that multi-talented writers (or auteurs, if you’re fancy and/or French) are responsible for ushering in this Golden Age. Frequently referenced in support of that argument are writer-director Sam Esmail of Mr. Robot fame, writer-director Vince Gilligan of Breaking Bad, and a relative newcomer who just so happens to be the subject of this week’s interview.
This week on Who Wrote It?, I had the pleasure of interviewing the truly amazing Rachel Bloom, best known as creator, writer, and star of the CW’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, a musical dramedy about a New Yorker named Rebecca Bunch who moves to the West Coast to pursue her ex-boyfriend from camp after the two have a chance encounter. Bloom, an NYU alum, recently nabbed a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy for her work on the show. I can honestly say that Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is one of the best shows on currently on television. If you haven’t seen it, go watch it now. Seriously. I’ll wait. You’re back? Good. Let’s get started.
Q and A
Q: When did you first develop an interest in acting, singing, and writing?
A: Birth! I started acting and singing at a very young age. Writing—well, I got into writing a bit later. I wrote a lot in high school, and English was my favorite subject. I discovered comedy writing at NYU, and I really loved it. College was when I got serious about writing.
Q: You received your B.F.A. in Theater from NYU. At NYU, you were a writer/director/performer for the sketch comedy group Hammerkatz. Have any Hammerkatz sketches that you wrote served as inspiration for your later works?
A: Oh, yeah, totally! I wrote my first musical sketch as part of Hammerkatz. The sketch was about kids going to summer camp and singing songs about “Barktos the Bear God”, a god they prayed to and fed sacrifices. That was the starting point for my love of musical sketch comedy.
Q: In what ways has your time on Hammerkatz influenced your sense of humor in general?
A: Many, many ways. I cannot overstate how important Hammerkatz was to my career. Hammerkatz taught me techniques of comedy that I use to this day—techniques that were originally developed by Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) Theater.
Q: How did you make the transition from being an Experimental Theatre major at NYU to working on television in L.A.?
A: Hammerkatz made me realize I wanted to pursue a career in comedy—writing and performing my own comedy—so I modeled my career goals after other comedians I knew at UCB. Also, I took this TV writing class at NYU taught by James Felder, and he gave me the basic technique for TV writing. He had us use this outline called a “Sherwood”, and that was very useful to me. I wrote a spec script in his class that ended up landing me my first TV writing job in L.A.
Q: You wrote for a number of shows (Robot Chicken, Allen Gregory, and The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange) before Crazy Ex-Girlfriend came along. Of these shows that don’t have the words “crazy” or “ex-girlfriend” in the title, which do you think meshed best with your writing style?
A: Robot Chicken! That took me back to my sketch roots so that was probably my favorite one to write for.
Q: Okay, so we’ve covered a lot of your early stuff. Now, onto Crazy Ex-Girlfriend! First of all, you have a co-writer and co-creator on the show, Aline Brosh McKenna (scribe of The Devil Wears Prada). How did you two meet?
A: Aline reached out to me. She was procrastinating from her work one day by surfing the web and saw some of the music videos on my YouTube Channel. After that she contacted me and asked if we could meet in person to discuss developing a musical TV show. I agreed, and when we met, we fell in love!
Q: How did you and McKenna come up with the premise for the show?
A: She had this idea for a movie called “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” prior to meeting with me. After we started talking, she realized it would fit our idea for a musical TV show starring me perfectly, so we took that concept and stretched it out to fit an entire television series.
Q: You play Rebecca Bunch, the titular character and lead role. How much of Rebecca is based on yourself?
A: A lot. It’s very much an emotional autobiography. Rebecca and I both escape into fantasy—her more so. We both love musicals, are feminist, are Jewish, and are ultimately optimistic. Also, both of us have gotten way too high off the drug of infatuation and it’s led us down some bad roads. The main difference between us is that Rebecca never pursued happiness on her own terms, which I’ve had the good fortune to do as an artist.
Q: How is writing for Rebecca different than writing for other characters on the show?
A: Well, in my case, I think about how I would embody her as Aline and I write her lines. We write dialogue by improvising aloud, so the acting on my end becomes pretty synonymous with the writing. In the beginning, Rebecca was easier to write due to the specificity of her character and her connection to myself, but now we have a good feel for all the characters.
Q: Give us a peek into the writer’s room of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. What is the process for writing each episode?
A: The whole room maps out the story while the writer of that week’s script writes broad story ideas on a white board. A writer’s assistant takes notes of every little idea and joke. Then the writer goes off and drafts an overview of the story. He or she gets notes from the studio and network, makes an outline, sends the outline off to the studio, gets notes on the outline, and then the writer writes the script. At the end we reconvene and the whole room polishes the script together.
Q: What about songwriting? How does that work?
A: That’s a whole separate process. Depending on the song, it’s some form of collaboration between me, composers/songwriters Adam Schlesinger and Jack Dolgen, and the occasional guest writer.
Q: Your show contains characters that are among the most psychologically complex on television right now. For example, you’ve previously stated that Rebecca Bunch, despite her deceptively sunny disposition, deals with depression and anxiety. Did you conduct much research on mental illness prior to writing Crazy Ex-Girlfriend?
A: Yep! And yeah, we openly discuss Rebecca’s mental state in the pilot and the seventh episode. We did do research, but it’s also based on the personal experiences of me and the other writers.
Q: On that note…there’s a fine line between laughing at Rebecca and laughing with her, yet you always seem to stay on the right side of that line—
A: Thank you!
Q: You’re welcome! So as I was saying, what methods do you use for writing a comedy starring characters with psychological issues while still treating those issues delicately?
A: For us, it’s always about writing what feels real. Within the truth lies specificity and nuance. If you write to reflect reality, that’s how you transcend stereotype.
Q: You have been commended for your usage of ethnically diverse and LBGTQ characters in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. How did those innovative choices come about? Were they written into characters’ backgrounds from your show’s initial stages, or were they incorporated later on, during either casting or production?
A: It’s a mix! We always knew we wanted Josh, Rebecca’s love interest, to be Asian. When we cast Vince [Vincent Rodriguez III], who’s Filipino, Josh became more specifically Filipino to reflect that. And with Darryl [Pete Gardner], Rebecca’s boss, we always knew we wanted him to have some sort of realization caused by Rebecca, so we decided to have him question his sexual preference because sexuality is such a huge part of identity.
Q: Finally, what advice do you have for up-and-coming young screenwriters trying to break into the business?
A: Write, write, write! And try to meet other writers as much as possible. Take classes, have table reads, submit to festivals. And give yourself goals that make you accountable to other people—host a writing group, get deadlines on submissions for fellowships and festivals, and schedule readings of your script with actors.
That’s all, folks! Tune into Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Mondays at 8/7c on the CW to get more of Rachel Bloom!
