“I love anytime women are funny,” actress Rachel Marsh declares. Thankfully, the 34-year-old has been able to be in plenty of projects that showcase this, most recently Prime Video’s romantic comedy The Love Hypothesis.
Marsh plays Anh, a graduate student and best friend to Lili Reinhart‘s Olive in the streamer’s adaptation of the wildly popular Ali Hazelwood novel. The actress was not looking to become the quirky best friend character, a trope that director Claire Scanlon and writers Sarah Rothschild and Hazelwood were not interested in rehashing.
“She is important in this story,” Marsh tells The Hollywood Reporter on a recent Zoom. “She also is funny.”
Marsh feels like the friendship between her character and Reinhart’s Olive is the foundation for the entire story, something that’s also true in Hazelwood’s book. The two women had a wonderful time finding that on — and off — screen friendship. “Building that trust was pretty easy. Lili is so amazing. She’s so sweet,” the actress says. “She’s such a good actor and a great scene partner. It was really fun for us to get to develop their best friendship over the course of the summer in Montreal.”
The upcoming romcom is not the first time you’ve seen Marsh on your screen. Her turn as Carly, the girlfriend to leading player Samir (Malik Elassal), in Adults has gone viral over the last month. It’s mostly thanks to a ridiculously catchy fake K-pop song in the series— if you haven’t heard “Hiccups (Body Go Crazy),” it’s time to look it up. “When I was reading it, I was like, ‘You guys know this is too good,’” she says of the song.
It all started when Marsh got a call from series co-creator Ben Kronengold telling her that the show was thinking about making Carly a K-pop star and wondering if it’s something she’d be comfortable with. “I was just tears in my eyes, full body chills,” she says cheekily. “No one’s ever asked me this before. My dream.”
Former Saturday Night Live video director Paul Briganti directed Marsh’s turn as a K-pop star on Adults, helping bring some SNL music parody vibes to the scene where she shoots a music video for the song. The director cheered her on as she made “the stupidest hand moves or facial expressions,” something she loved.
“It sparked something in me, which I think every single girl has. Where I wondered, ‘What if I can sing and I just haven’t been vocally produced in the right way,’” she says.
There’s an entire choreographed version of the song that didn’t make the cut. Maybe it’ll be released, she muses. But “Hiccups” fans, don’t worry. Marsh is also pleading for a version of the song to be released on streaming platforms.
“I really think they should put the song on Spotify or something,” she says. “I think people yearn for things like that, to just have a moment of joy.”
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It’s a busy release couple weeks for you. How are you feeling?
I feel good. It’s been really cool. We had our first fan screening the other night for The Love Hypothesis and it went really well. It’s fun, this waiting period. The first batch of people saw it, and they really like it. Are they going to get spoilers? I’m just anticipating a lot, but I think it went really well and it made me even more excited for the 23rd when it comes out.
Did you know about the book at all before you signed on?
I did. I had seen it because it was a big book in airports and bookstores everywhere. It was a top seller for so long, so think I just saw the cover and it was on my list of books to read. I never got to read it. I feel like it was beautiful that I was able to read it when I booked the job and didn’t really have a preconceived notion of it before that, so I could find the similarities between the book and the script. That was really fun I feel so honored to be in it. It’s so beloved by so many people.
(l-r) Jeremy (Nicholas Duvernay), Ahn (Marsh) and Malcolm (Jaboukie Young-White) in ‘The Love Hypothesis.’
Philippe Bossé/Prime Video
How was it shooting in Montreal?
Awesome. I’d never been. I was like, “What is this magical place?” It felt like Europe and Brooklyn. Like other cities but nicer people and beautiful streets and public transportation. I could go on and on, but I loved it so much. Part of it is being an actor is so fun is if you’re lucky enough to book a job in a place that you haven’t been, it’s like they put you up, they pay for things. You get to experience the world in this privileged sense, but it’s such a dream. I really had a blast and I tried to do all the Montreal things. We all did Cirque du Soleil as a cast. There was such a fun food scene in Montreal too. I tried to try all the food, and I love Canada.
What is the ideal genre for you? Do you like that you get to dabble in different things?
I really do. In acting — it’s interesting because you don’t really get a lot of agency in choosing your jobs — but I feel so lucky. I’ve had a lot of these roles that are drama, and I came from comedy. I had some imposter syndrome for sure doing them, but then the more I did it, I was like, “Oh, comedy and drama are so…” They’re so closely linked. I don’t know, it feels really fun for me to get to do both. As long as it’s feeling fun.
Fallout also has an element of comedy, so I think that feels very familiar. But then the cool thing about them is they shoot on film, so that’s such a challenge for me, it’s totally new. With The Morning Show, there’s so many celebrities in that show. It’s a very high pressure job, and so that’s a challenge in a different way. The acting is fun, and I’m just mostly coming in and delivering bad news to Jennifer Aniston, and so it’s like, “How do I do that in eight different ways?”
Does it all come back to comedy?
For me, comedy has always been what I am trying to be really great at, and I think it’s the most challenging thing to do as an actor. Even though I’ve done some dramatic stuff, I still think the comedy is the hardest, and so I will always want to be doing that and pushing myself to be better at it.
What’s the ideal day off for you look like?
I’m being honest, an ideal day off — this sounds so basic, this is not going to be good. I try to go to a workout class in the city. In Montreal, I tried to go to a fun Pilates class or something, and then I’ll try to find a coffee shop because I used to co-own a coffee shop. I love pulling my own espresso shots. I have a little espresso machine. I just love coffee, and I love buying an $8 little drinkie. I don’t know why. I just have to buy it, so I will go to a coffee shop just read a book or be on my phone or just hang out and people watch. That’s really what I did a lot in Montreal, or even in Toronto, when we were shooting Adults and I had the day off.
I’m not used to being by myself very much, so it’s nice to be forced to. I try not to try to do extra work like writing or whatever when I’m shooting something because it feels like just the work is enough. [I love] just going in and eating. I love to eat dinner by myself too. I love going to a new restaurant and sitting at the bar and getting a glass of wine. Some places it’s way more chill, but if you do it in L.A., people are like, “Whoa, this girl is in crisis.”
That’s crazy. There’s so many people here, you’d think it’d be more acceptable.
No, you can’t. Even I am judgmental of girls who do that, but in any other city, anywhere else in the world, I feel like it’s totally fine. I took advantage of that, and nobody even cares or bothers you. I would bring a book or just sit there and talk to people. I like to do that a lot or just watch TV. In Canada, they have a very interesting TV choices, so I got a VPN and had to do that to watch my shows. Just a chill day by myself is really nice.
Marsh as Carly in ‘Adults’ season two.
FX
You used to co-own a coffee shop?
Oh my God, girl.
Please tell me more.
Well, when I got out of college… I went to business school, and I didn’t even know I wanted to be an actor. I grew up pretty religious. I don’t know if you want to put this in there, but pretty religious and really wanted to do good in the world. I guess that’s not a religious thing, but I worked at a couple nonprofits and worked for an agency that worked for nonprofits. I was really in the nonprofit space, and then I got burnt out by that, which sounds so insane. I got burnt out by the nonprofit life and thought about what I wanted to do. I was already selling my homemade almond milk to this coffee shop here in L.A. Then I just became a co-owner. We worked at the coffee shop together, and we had regular customers. I still am friends with a lot of those people. I had worked in restaurants and stuff before, but never a coffee shop, which I think is a very specific thing for L.A. culture.
The service industry, in current day, is rough. I know how specific I am with my coffee or my matcha, so I understand some people, but it was rough. I really did love it. I loved having a little business. Maybe one day, I’ll own another coffee shop or a little shoppy shop, something where I could sell stuff. We’ll see. Maybe I won’t act forever, or maybe I will and it’ll be a tax write-off.