Rachel Bloom is crazy about Emmy love
LOS ANGELES: Rachel Bloom started the year with a Golden Globe win for her starring role in the CW sitcom "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend." A week later, she added a Critics' Choice Award to her mantle.
So, a 2016 Emmy nomination for lead actress in a comedy series seemed within reach.
But no.
"It was a bummer," Bloom acknowledged in a recent interview. "But, God," she continued, "the fact that I was even in the conversation, on the short list to get any nomination, is unbelievable."
But she's still a double nominee. The show received four Emmy nominations for original songs, main-title theme, choreography and single-camera editing — and Bloom plays into the music nods.
Those awards will among those presented at Saturday's Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremony, which, unlike next weekend's prime-time show, in general celebrate technicians and others working behind the scenes.
"Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" casts Bloom as a New York lawyer, Rebecca, who, on a whim, abandons her posh but miserable existence to be with the love of her life, Josh (Vincent Rodriguez III).
Problems are that her so-called "love" was a decades-old summer-camp crush who is engaged to another woman and now lives in California. And when Rebecca arrives, Josh has no idea why Rebecca is really there.
Bloom co-wrote the main-title theme with long-time collaborator Adam Schlesinger.
"I really miss that old-school television opening with a song telling you what the show is going to be, because it seems kind of cheesy and outdated," Bloom said.
Her nominated song is "Settle for Me," a Cole Porter-esque ballad (co-written with Schlesinger and Jack Dolgen), which places Rebecca and Josh's best friend Greg (Tony nominee Santino Fontana) in a lavish recreation of a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie-musical production number. "A dream come true," Bloom said of creating that sequence.
The 29-year-old Bloom has actually been down the Emmy road once before, as a 2015 nominee for co-writing the short-form 'toon "Robot Chicken." (The comic-fantasy "Adventure Time" took home the statuettes.) So, this time, she's ready. Her date is husband, actor and show consultant Dan Gregor.
As for Emmy-day preps?
"Rachel wakes up," she replied. "Everyone who's nominated on the show and their date is coming to my house for a nice brunch spread while we ladies get their hair and makeup done. We have a 10-person limo booked for the 'Crazy Ex-' crew, so it's going to be like adult prom."
The Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremonies are set be held Saturday and Sunday at the Microsoft Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. The Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony is on September 18.