(drum music)
- I'm Oliver Trevena in studio for the Hollywood Reporter
joined by the brilliant Rachel Bloom.
- Hi. - Hi.
- Hi.
- Hi. - Hi.
- How are you?
- Good. How are you?
- We just had a Red Bull so we've got full energy.
- Oh, I just had a Red Bull.
- Yeah, we were talking about the smell of Red Bull.
Don't know how relevant that is now.
- Yeah, in his adorable accent he was like
"Oh, gimme some of your Red Bull breath, love.
Oh, oh it smells a little fruity there.
A little acidic."
- I get mimicked a lot. That one's pretty good.
- Oh, really? - That's pretty good.
- I love it.
I was in "Oliver" so...
- I was in "Oliver" too. I was a stand-in for Oliver though.
I couldn't even get Oliver.
Being cool Oliver.
- What do you mean a stand-in?
- A stand-in. I didn't get the lead.
- Oh, oh, oh. Like an understudy?
- Understudy, yeah.
- Oh, got it.
I thought you just said you were a stand-in
for a theatrical production, literally just
in dress rehearsals.
What a thankless job.
- It might have been that actually.
- Yeah.
- I think that's what it was. That's what it was.
But you don't struggle with that.
You are the star.
- Let me ask you,
I assume you're from the U.K. obviously...
- I am. Well done. Well done. One and one.
- So, like to us, a cockney accent is really mysterious,
but to you guys is it like the equivalent of us doing
like a thick southern accent?
When you do a cockney,
(imitates British accent)
like a thick cockney, I'm Oliver Twist
(stops accent) Is it the equivalent of us being like
(southern accent) Aw, gosh darn?
- I guess so. That is an equivalent.
- Yeah, okay.
- That is equivalent. Yeah.
But cockney, I don't know how similar it is to like,
cause when we think cockney, we think a little but naughty.
Like you're gonna get yourself into some mischief,
some trouble. - Oooh.
- Yeah? You like that? Is that with southern?
- Yeah, I think that we think a...
(southern accent) A little bit.
(stops accent) Now I can't do a southern accent.
Let's talk about my acting skills as I forget
how to sound like a southerner at all.
- Well you know, you've got a lot to think about.
- I have a lot to think about.
- You've got to think about Season Four.
- Nice segue.
- You like that. I just did that.
And we're going to continue.
- Oh my god.
- We'll continue with the segues all the way through.
I'm gonna blow you away.
- Great.
- Now I'm going blank. Season Three has ended.
It was a big season because I feel like the comedy
obviously was a big part of Season One and Two,
but in Three it really went more intense.
- Yeah, this was the season we've always
looked forward to doing because this was,
big spoiler alert, my character kind of spirals
in a way that's been called for the past
two and a half seasons, and then she attempts suicide.
And then is diagnosed, finally, with something called
Borderline Personality Disorder and the rest of
the season is grappling with that.
So, it definitely was my most challenging
and rewarding acting season.
- Yeah, it was huge. You were incredible.
- Thank you so much.
- I mean, it was nice to see that side of you as well.
For people that hadn't seen that it's like
"Oh, there she is. Look at that. Look at that.
Got that in your locker. Pulling it out"
But touching on those, like, those topics are massive.
And yet, I feel like the way it's put across,
in a comedic way, is easier to swallow.
Does that make sense?
- Yeah, I mean look, when we did the suicide attempt
scene, it was done incredibly seriously,
and that was definitely one of the,
the hardest scene I've had to shoot on the show.
But we're always coming at any topic from a place of truth,
and looking for the natural juxtapositions
that happen in real life.
For instance, when my character's about to get diagnosed
after a suicide attempt, she sings this very uplifting song
called "A Diagnosis" and you wouldn't normally associate
getting a diagnosis with something uplifting but
that's something that happens in real life.
You look forward to these very weird things that make you
feel like a musical theater ingenues but are these
kind of fucked up wishes and dreams.
- Yeah and that's it. You obviously mentioned
the suicide scene was very serious, but I feel like
if this was a show touching base on all these topics
in a serious way, I mean, you'd struggle to
get through the whole season.
But with the comedic aspect, it makes people
keep coming back.
- Yeah, and it also keeps it within the framing device
of we're doing up, we're deconstructing romantic comedies
and musical comedies, and so when it is in the troupe of
"Oh this character's" cause she kinda goes a little
Glenn Close. She tries to be "Well I'm gonna be this
sexy femme fatale villain" and that quickly devolves
into what would happen in real life.
It's still within the structure of a narrative,
which also makes it easy for me to play because
I can trust that it's there in the structure,
and I can just be real in the moment
and that it's not gratuitous.
- Right right right. Yeah. It's good.
So let's talk about,
I know you probably can't give us too much, but Season Four.
- Sure.
- Because there is going to be a Season Four,
and it's going to be the end.
- Yeah. The whole thing takes place in not only
one day but one hour, And it takes place
in the hour that the universe was created.
Billions of years ago.
- Cool. Great.
- Yeah, so that's the premise of Season Four.
- Done it. Just done. That's what we're getting.
- It kind of has nothing to do with any of the things
we've been doing. We all just play atoms.
It's actually just a bunch of...
- You thought you would mix it up. You would go out with...
- It's a bunch of darkness for 12 episodes and then
in the last moment of the 13th episode,
the universe is created.
- So if you watch it the whole way through,
you'll get this magical moment at the very end.
- And if you play Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon
with it, nothing happens. It doesn't sync up.
- Okay, great. So that's what we can expect.
- Yeah.
- What are you crafting, really? Anything?
- Well we always only wanted to do four seasons
because every season has a different aspect of the story,
of being a crazy ex-girlfriend.
So Season One was all about denial.
Season Two was about just love,
being obsessed and kind of escaping in love.
Season Three was about the spiral and then
Season Four is about renewal, and starting from scratch.
And that's the story that we always kind of wanted to tell.
- And when you point it out like that, I realize that
I'm in fact a crazy ex-girlfriend.
- We all are. Love makes us insane.
I mean, that's the thing about the show is these things
that all of the characters are going through,
but especially Rebecca.
Yes, she has Borderline Personality Disorder,
but Borderline, interestingly enough,
a lot of people say that it's emotions we all have
with Borderline people
except it's like they have no emotional skin.
It's like their whole body is covered
in emotional third-degree burns.
So everything she's going through is literally
an exaggerated version of things that we all go through.
And they've done brain scans on people when they're in love
and when you're in love it mimics a lot of things
that happen to you when you're both on cocaine and have OCD.
And that's everyone.
- Wow.
- Yeah, it's terrible for you. Love's terrible.
- Yeah.
- But it's also wonderful I guess.
- It's a juggle. It's a risk.
- It's a risk.
Well Mother Nature, as my writing partner says
"Mother Nature does not care that you're happy.
Mother Nature wants you to, in the lizard part
of our brains, reproduce.
And even if you don't want to reproduce, that's the like,
the lizard primate part of love.
- Look at all of this I'm learning. I'm learning so much.
- I'm so articulate. Yeah.
- No, I am really learning so much. It's incredible.
Talk about the music. 'Cause it's amazing what you guys do.
And I can't imagine the workload.
Like doing this, and doing the music and doing
creating the storylines and touching base
on everything that you've just mentioned.
- It's really hard because, so I write the songs along
with Jack Dolgen who is an EP on the show,
and Adam Schlesinger, who is our Executive Music Producer.
And writing the songs is a tough needle to thread
because you have to find, ideally, a song that
not only serves the story, gives us an emotional insight
into a character that we didn't know already, but also has
a joke that can stand alone from the context of the plot.
So finding the premise of the song and the hook of the song
or the title of the song is the hardest part.
Everything else rolls downhill once we have that premise.
- Okay. And every song is kind of, it's got a good mix.
Is that 'cause you guys have your own kind of
eclectic choice in music?
- We try to not repeat genres.
We try to do a different genre. We try to choose a genre
that serves the emotion of the piece,
or a genre that's gonna kinda be juxtaposed
with the lyrics in a really funny way
and we try our best not to repeat.
So we don't just do folk comedy songs, or pop comedy songs,
or musical theater songs. We do everything.
- Okay. And you guys push it. You push the... You know...
- As best we can on network television.
- Right right right.
- Abiding by FCC guidelines.
And when we want to do something dirty,
we'll make a dirty version and we'll put it on my YouTube.
So check that out for a special treat.
- It's gonna go out there either way, which is great.
Going back to the beginning, because obviously,
doing research, kind of fascinating, you were
an intern at SNL.
- I was.
- And that and then also performing on cruise ships
around New York, which I didn't even know there were
cruise ships.
- It takes around, It's called The Spirit of New York.
It takes you around New York City for three hours.
And people, I think a lot of people don't realize
that it's also somewhat of a show.
So there's always that look of horror from like five people
who are like "Oh no, they're singing.
Ohhh. I just wanted a nice cruise. Nooo."
- And I can imagine you went all steam ahead
when you got on that stage.
- Yeah, yeah. We did a parody of The Black Eyed Peas
"I Gotta Feeling" where it was like
"Tonight's the night. Take off your coat.
And rock the boat."
I remember that.
- I felt that. Just. And you were in your chair.
You weren't even moving and I wanted to
kinda move.
- You just felt like you were looking at a mediocre view
of The Statue of Liberty just then.
- Mm, yeah.
- Yeah, well that's the goal.
- You succeeded. You succeeded.
- Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses,
yearning to pay 15 dollars for a mojito.
(chuckling)
- I'm trying to get, to hold my face.
Talking about that though, I mean, quite the journey.
What have you learned on this journey so far?
I mean, if you have something that comes to mind,
I'm sure you've learned a lot.
- Well there's...
I went from doing internet videos that I paid for
with my own money and produced by myself
to making a pilot for Showtime,
having that pilot be rejected,
going back to making internet videos
and then getting a series out of the blue
and within six months of that,
winning a Golden Globe. So that was crazy.
I've learned a lot.
I mean I don't know where to,
I think learning how to be a boss,
and how to mix that with still being creatively free,
learning what I like, what I need to be in charge of
and what I can delegate.
Learning
how to remain my self.
You know, while doing this separate job, which is publicity,
which is not what you train for in acting school.
No one trains you for this.
No one trains you to do interviews, but it's actually
a really important part of your job.
- Right. Well no one can train you for that journey.
- No.
- You can never expect that.
- No, it was, I mean it's been nuts.
But in a wonderful way.
It's been wonderful.
- In the best possible way, it's nuts.
The best possible nuts.
- I have gowns now.
- You have gowns. You do.
- It's just like, I remember when I was shopping for my
wedding dress, because I got married before everything,
and I thought "How am I gonna re-use my wedding dress
because this is the only gown I will ever own.
I can't. I spent all this money on this gown
and now I have multiple gowns.
- How wrong you were.
- How wrong I was.
But the gownage. No one tells you about the gownage.
- The gownage. Is that... Is that? Gownage?
- Mm-hmm, I think Gucci coined that term.
- Okay, well you just did.
Your new line coming out.
- It's me, Gucci.
- Gownage by Bloom.
(quick laugh)
I like that. It's got a ring..
- Yeah. Have you ever worn a gown?
- I haven't.
I've thought about wearing dresses
a few times, but, let's have another conversation.
- I think you should do it. Oh, wow.
I think you should do it.
- Really? You think I should?
- Here's what I'll say about gowns.
- [Oliver] Okay. I would like to wear a gown.
Okay, make it happen.
- Here's what I've learned.
- I would like to wear a gown. You could tell.
- Great. I think you would look beautiful in a gown.
- Thank you. I'd like to wear a gown.
- Here's a fact I've learned about gowns:
As a little girl, I always wanted to be a famous actress.
And I'll admit it.
I like attention.
I would draw myself at award shows with these
big foofy gowns.
The problem is when you're at an awards show or
on a red carpet and you have a gown that has a train,
everyone's stepping on it.
So it's actually kind of a pain in the ass
to have a big foofy princess gown.
At your wedding, people are giving you a wide berth,
theoretically, but on a red carpet no one cares.
They're just stomping on you to get to
Felicity Huffman over there.
- And you can't really have people holding it,
'cause then you look...
- Then you look like a princess.
Only Lady Gaga could pull that off.
And, I don't know, the person holding it would have to
be covered in salmon or something.
- Right, and that would be fishy.
(awkward pause)
- FYC
- What's next?
- What's next? God.
- God.
I wanna do movies and Broadway and more TV and sleep.
- Well you can do all that.
You can do all that. Without a doubt.
- I can do all that.
- You can do all that. You're going to. It's amazing.
We're gonna wrap this up 'cause we have to.
I would talk to you all day. I really would.
THR's Top Five. Five quick questions.
- Okay.
- Movie you watched as a kid that you wish you were in.
- Ohh. Hook.
I mean...
To be a Lost Boy. Come on.
- Alright, alright. TV show that...
- You're doing it, Peter. Go on.
- You are doing it, Peter. TV show you would love
to turn into a movie.
- You know what? Frasier. But them as like, adolescents.
- Okay. I love that. That's a good one.
- And Frasier and Niles as adolescents.
- That's not a bad idea.
- Thanks.
- You're good. Describe your journey as an actress
so far in one word.
- Ownership.
Pretending that I wrote every line I'm saying
even if I didn't write it.
- Okay. Own it.
Last thing that made you laugh. Like, really laugh.
- Oh I laughed at something...
Oh God.
A really dirty story that my friend told me that
we were just laughing about before this.
- Okay. I'm gonna... Just stop there.
- I don't think it would be appropriate.
- I'm guessing I know this, but who knows?
First moment that comes to mind when I say career highlight.
- Yeah, probably the Golden Globe. That was pretty crazy.
- It's a pretty strong one.
- Yeah, it was pretty crazy.
- There'll be more.
There'll be more. Without a doubt.
There will. There should be. There should be.
Rachel Bloom. Phenomenal.
- Thank you.