- Why, look! It's Rachel Bloom.
Hi, Rachel. - Hi.
I'll speak into this mic, yeah?
- Yeah, yeah, you're professional, you know how...
This is a mic, it's--
- Yes, got it. Copy.
- Welcome to Comic Con.
- Thank you so much.
- How's it going so far?
- It's great, I mean, I'm doing press,
I mean, I haven't really done the Con, to be honest.
- Right, you don't have a sense of the...
Wonderful madness outside this rooms.
- I've been to Comic Con and it's crazy.
And I'm excited to be here, it's lovely outside.
- Yes.
- You wouldn't know it from this
window-less loft they have you in,
but it's lovely. - No, I'm not allowed outside.
So, explain to me,
and I mean this in the nicest possible way,
your presence here, this show.
Comic Con is many things... - Great.
- It's not just about comic books.
- Yeah, I mean it's, look,
it's celebrating the popular arts.
What it started with was my touring agent
booked us a Crazy Ex live show
at the Balboa theater, adjacent to Comic Con,
and we thought, "Well, we're a genre show,
"we're musical, we have intense fandom,
"can we get a panel?" And we got a panel.
- Nice, so, have you done the panel yet?
- No, tonight, today.
- Okay, where are you at now, coming into the final season,
super size, it's kind of final season, right?
- Yes.
We're kind of still climbing up the mountain,
because it's such a super sized final season and we're,
we're excited to wrap everything up,
but also explore new things in the season.
- So, you're in the writing stage right now.
- We start filming on Wednesday.
- Okay.
- So, we're still writing.
- So, generally, is this the time
when you're, like, most nervous, excited, anxious...
Like, what's the, when does...
- There's no time.
There's no time to be nervous, you just kind of,
my job is almost purely reactive.
I have to do this, I have to do this,
I have to do this, I just kind of do it.
In a great way, it's freeing.
I just have to worry about the work.
- And what about just like, the idea of,
there's not many people, it's happening a little bit more
nowadays, that, where you're able to, kind of like,
set your own terms, in terms of how to wrap up
a narrative. - Yeah.
- I feel like the British shows hosts
used to do it very well.
- It's still really unique and,
because we set out to make a four season show,
and we said from the beginning, "We want four seasons.",
the only debate was, will we get to season two,
season three, season four,
but now that we have, it's amazing.
- So, at this point, is it...
How much of it is...
I guess just, what can you set up in terms of
where we saw your character at the end of last season,
are we gonna, is this opening up to
prison musical numbers in this season?
- A lot of people have asked about a cell block
tango number, there is a cell block tango-ish number coming.
- Okay. - But it's not what you think.
And...
What was the first part of the question?
- I don't (stammers) remember where I am.
- It's gonna be great.
- Okay. - It's gonna be great.
- (laughs) That's your sound promise to make.
- It's gonna be great.
- That's the adjective that you're going with?
- Yeah, it's great.
- And the writers and you guys are like,
"Let's go with 'great' this year."
Do you feel pressure to wrap it up
in a way that satisfies you, the creator?
- Yeah, pressure from inside myself, though,
'cause if we ever, if we wrote the show
that fans just were clamoring for,
it would be a different show.
All we can do is write the show we wanna watch.
- Right, so how reactive are you...
To fans, I mean, like,
what's the interaction between you
and what the fans say about you or the show, et cetera,
how do you, kind of learn to figure out how to manage that?
- I mean, the episodes are written
and filmed before they air, and a lot--
- Let's get back in the edit room, guys.
- A lot of the episodes are in the can before.
We appreciate what they say and they make,
and the fan questions make me think,
I mean, I took Twitter off my phone,
I don't have Facebook messages enabled,
just 'cause my job is so busy as is, so I will...
Find out from when I go on Twitter on the desktop,
what fan questions are,
and obviously, there are questions when I do live events,
but all I can do is just try to make the show...
All we can do is make the show that we'd wanna watch.
- Back to kind of themes about the character and the show...
where would we say Rebecca's at in the final season,
in terms of...
- How to put into practice the lessons
that she's been slowly learning.
- Got it.
And is that kind of like, the mantra,
like when you're in the writer's room,
and you guys are kind of like, discussing it...
- Yeah, I mean, we have different ways of saying it,
you know, two steps forward, one step back,
or one steps forward, two steps back, or rebirth, renewal,
but that was always meant to be this season,
is putting the pieces together.
- And is it also important to you and
invigorating, in terms of dealing frankly
with mental health issues for that character last season,
et cetera, and sort of seeing
that kind of frankness portrayed on screen,
is something we're seeing a little bit more of,
slowly, but surely, in pop culture.
Was that an important step for you as a
creator and an actress,
and were you hardened by the response?
- Yeah.
Well, seeing the response where people tried
to help each other online,
and how the fans reached out to each other is amazing,
and I think that just the ability to portray things
that are true, that aren't often seen on TV,
let alone network TV, let alone musical,
the show, in its best form, for me,
was always the contrast between
these very showy numbers and very subdued,
quiet, real moments, and...
Last season, we really got to...
Do a lot of that.
- Yeah.
Correct me if I'm wrong, you wrote
some musical aspects for the
Superman-Flash crossover, right?
- Supergirl-Flash, yeah.
- Supergirl-Flash, sorry.
Yes, Supergirl, of course.
So, what was that experience like,
and I'm just curious since we are here at Comic Con,
do you think there is something inherently,
the dos and don't of certain superheroes
that lend themselves to that format or not?
- I find that there's a lot of overlap between
comic book fandom, superhero fandom,
sci-fi, musical theater, there's a lot of overlap.
I mean, Joss Wheden is a massive musical theater fan, right?
- Yeah.
- And there's a lot of overlap,
and I think, because it's fantasy,
it's escapism, it's high premise thinking,
high concept thinking, to me,
the part of my brain that's sci-fi lives in,
my love for that, is also the part of my brain
that loves musical theater, which loves sketch comedy,
that loves amusement parks, it's all this kind of...
- The heightened, kind of, emotion and everything...
- It's basically, in a world where...
Blank. - Yep.
- And so, that's why it all,
I think, dovetails really nicely with each other.
It's taking kernels of reality and heightening it.
To make a point. - Totally, totally.
Is there a superhero out there
that you feel particularly lends itself to
that heightened musical format
that would be interesting for,
whether you or anybody else, to explore?
- Yeah, I mean, I think that any...
I think super villains are much more conducive
to musicals, because getting into their psyche and why,
I think villains, in general, are more interesting
than heroes, because no villain, good villain,
no good villain thinks, "I'm a villain."
They all think they're the hero of their own story.
- Sure.
- And so I really like that,
and I think that that's where you get interesting songs.
- Favorite comic book villain, just as a fan, for you?
- I think Magneto's pretty awesome.
- Definitely has a point of view that's--
- I get his point.
- Yeah, exactly. - Sometimes.
(Josh laughs) Sometimes.
Sometimes. - Sometimes.
Always, with Magneto, Rachel Bloom.
(Rachel laughs) That's the quote right here.
(Josh laughs)
This Professor X guy's an asshole,
Magneto, he knows what he's talking about.
Congratulations on the show, wrapping up in style,
and enjoy the rest of your Comic Con.
- Thank you. - It's been great to meet you.
Thanks so much, a lot of fun.