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On its own, the short is a freaky delight that raises more questions than it answers.
In other words, the whole thing is based on a true story.
Who was this woman?
Where did she come from?
What was behind her next-level bravado?
What podcast did she blast at the real-life party?
And did she actually disappear into thin air?
I reached out to Berlant and Early to get the (absolutely bizarre) details.
I invited people over afterward I dont know if this is where things with the real Rachel started.
We still dont know.
And I started letting people into the house.
It was a gathering of, like, eight people.
Very, very casual.
Though I didnt recognize her, I thought,She must be a friend of a friend.
So I just let her in!
Because I suffer from toxic people-pleasing.
And Im so terrified of confrontation.
Shes a teacher in real life.
And Rachel really sat down and started projecting onto Erin that she was a dancer.
Insisting that she was a dancer!
They talked for so long that we all assumed, Oh, she must be friends with Erin.
At one point, Erin looked over her shoulder at me and was like, Do you know her?
And I exaggeratedly was like, No!
And Erin thought I was joking, so she just kept talking to her.
When Erin planted that seed that she didnt know her thats when I started to get a little confused.
I started bringing people back into the kitchen and asking them if they knew her.
One by one, we all realized that nobody knew her.
If we burst the bubble of her fantasy, or whatever is going on?
I was genuinely scared but also did not want to do it.
But we were having a small gathering of friends.
So Sam was like, No.
Im going to ask her to leave.
And he handled it exactly like he does in the short.
]I think she felt very entitled to her free-spiritedness.
The subtext of her exit was like, Yall are nerds for not allowing me to stay here.
Then she started doing something very troubling, which we show in the short.
Thats when our stomachs started to drop.
And she really did the thing where she was like, Oh, I left my purse here.
And she 100 percent did not enter with a purse.
And she darted back to my bathroom!
We were scared she was, like, looking through my shit.
And then she left out the front door, in real life.
She did not disappear.
But for the sake of making an impactful ending, we kept it real loose.
Then she left, and we talked about it for five hours.
We could not stop breaking it down.
It was just so rattling and terrifying.
I was very, very scared that somebody had followed me from the show and entered my home.
She really had to wind her way up a path to come into the house.
It really is such an iconic, Kate Berlant, delusional, heartbreaking character.
And we added some cinematic flourishes and improvised.
Kate, if I may, brought so much humanity to it.
Berlant:Thank you.
Early:Her Rachel is absolutely devastating.
Rachel kind of has a point, you know?
Whats her point?Early:She loves wine!
She loves wine and community.
Berlant: Shes here to party.
Were like, Thats not a bad thing!
Berlant: Its not an indictment of Rachel.
Its not?Berlant: Well, shes not hurting anyone.
She actually needed to leave; it wasnt okay that she came into my house.
But thats whats so painful about that confrontation.
Its almost more brutal than it needed to be.
But to get to get somebody out of your house, you have to be short and brutal.
Was it actually that difficult to get her to leave?Early:Yes.
It took a very, very long time.
The first part of the conversation was on the couch.
And Sam was like, I mean, yeah.
She extended her exit by 15 minutes by standing at the door and talking to us about the band.
It felt like she didnt want to leave.
She just wanted to hang!
And again, in another scenario, maybe wed have been open.
If there had been other strangers or wed been high out of our minds.
But it was a sober, intimate evening.
And it didnt make sense to have a total stranger there.[Laughs.]
And then I called him because I was like, Gossip!
Early: She loves gossip.
Berlant:I just immediately was like, I have to play her.
Thats my dream role.
Absolutely desperate to play her.
And because I wasnt there, I could do my own interpretation of Rachel.
The process of shooting was so fun.
Everybody did it as a favor.
It was a long shoot.
Early: We shot till like 5 a.m.
But our friends were shockingly good.
Kate, talk to me about your interpretation of Rachel.
Its all there![Laughs.
]Shes passing for somebody whos belonging in that space.
Early:Shes passing for stable.
Which is why its so alarming.
It took us so long to figure it out.
Early:Yeah, it wasnt likeGirl, Interrupted.
Berlant:Were not making fun of somebody who lives on the street.
Early: Shes, like, a Silver Lake girl you see in candle shops.
Well, I think that behavior is recognizable, if bizarre.
We were making plans, obviously using our voices, in a public space.
Berlant: Thats the most likely.
But then shed have had to follow you.
Early: Thats whats so scary.
She would have had to drive because we all drove to my place.
Berlant: I identify with Rachel.
Like, I love the idea of doing that.
Early:Kate and I have literally done that.
A few weeks ago in Silver Lake.
Berlant:Well, we were technically invited in.
We were so touched.
Berlant: She and her wife gave us a tour and we hung out.
Early: We were oohing and aahing over their ceramics.
Theres a little bit of Rachel in all of us.
Thats the pull quote.
She had zero interest in me.
For the rest of it, I was just observing her.
If she was a superfan, she was playing the long game and had yet to connect with me.
But I dont think she was.
I think she just wanted to party.
Or truly wanted to pee.
And was just charmed by my decor.
Berlant:But thats crazy.
Who the hell is like, God, I just have to pee.
Ill just ask this house?
I would be hospitalized before I would pee in a strangers house.
Or pee in a bush!Berlant: Totally.
I pee in the street all the time.
Do you think the real Rachel has seen the video?Berlant: Oh my God.
Early:That deeply terrifies me.
I get the feeling shes disconnected from our work, and from pop culture.
I get the feeling shes kind of a wanderer.
I mean, I know she wandered into my home.
But theres no way to know.
Berlant:But when the Vulture article comes out, youd have to live under a rock.
Whats the best response youve gotten to the video?Berlant:Claire fromFleabag.
Early: Oh my God, yes.The sister fromFleabagtweeted it[Sian Clifford].We were stunned.
Weve been talking exclusively about her performance for three weeks.
But also we love people saying, Oh God, Im Rachel.
Did you get your sweater back?Early:She didnt really take my sweater.
Berlant: Thats true.
I really am Rachel.
Early: Sorry to talk about Kates performance again
Berlant:just, just.
Early:But she looks so childlike and wounded, which is hard to watch.
I was so uncomfortable that I was just pretending to order pizza the whole time.
But tonally, the real Rachel was more brutal and defensive than Kate.
What I love about Kate is that its just kind of heartbreaking.
Berlant:Wed never have included that footage if it had shown her face.
And thats all the footage we have.
We used the NPR podcastHow I Built Thison the creation of Five Guys.
A brilliant touch by our friend and Foley artist Theda Hammel.
Gordon, the painter from the short, also painted ourRachelposter!
Look very closely at the hair.
Whats in the hair?Early:Two eyes and a mouth!
If you guys could Rachel anyone on earth, who would it be?Berlant: Oh my God.
Lets get that trending, folks.
Its so obvious, but right now, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, for me.
Early:Im trying to think of whose home I want to see.
Do you have anyone you think Id like?
Who do I love?
The creative team ofChernobyl.
