Having the film finally come out after like a year, it's been such a long journey, I've been crying for two weeks, I'm Rachel Senate and this is on the rise, so I'm so when I was growing up I was always like loud, I would say I did these little plays with my siblings that I would write and direct and star and I always performed and I did theater growing up and then I found comedy in college because I was dating a guy who was doing stand up and I had never even seen stand up before, like I didn't really know what it was, I just started doing it and I loved it and then from there I started performing more and making more sketches.

Yeah, I just kind of grew from there.

Um so let's say I'm seeing a guy, we are both at the same party and he is um ignoring me, not talking to me, not looking at me, I'm like, I love that, it gives me space the first time I did stand up.

So I was dating that guy and he was like, I'm a stand up um and you should come to a show and buy a show him in an open mic.

And so we went to this like grind me bar and there was probably like 10 people, they were all older men, and I did my first set and I talked about being fingered the guy fingering me, it felt like he was trying to like get something out of a vending machine.

So that was my first stand up set, that was my first joke.

Um and I just loved it.

Like, I think probably looking back, I'm sure I was horrible the first time, but it's so fun and you feel so alive, and I was like, I have to keep doing this.

I think my family was always really supportive of me being an actor.

They always came to my shows.

I think they had a little bit of trouble when I first started doing comedy because in their heads that were like, you want to do broadway and I think that there was a little bit of an adjustment period for them, just my social media because I don't think they understood what I was trying to do, but now they really get it.

And I think that they, some of the things that are like, maybe I don't get it, but I get that you're trying to do something.

And so I think they understand more now.

I wasn't allowed to watch that much tv or movies.

We would have 30 minutes a day, like max of like movie or computer time.

I feel like I was more of a theater nerd.

I loved guys and dolls when I was little, there was this one time that I had pneumonia really long and then I had like one of those like little Children's vanities and I just like would sit in in front of the vanity and lip sync to guys and dolls and like a blanket with the little um breathing thing that they give you the kids when they have pneumonia.

I always wanted to be an actor.

I think when I was younger I didn't know what the path was gonna be.

I went to N.

Y.

U.

For acting and I just didn't really feel connected in the acting program.

Like I felt like you're like rolling on the ground in leggings and it's like pretend to be a snake and it's like they're trying to be a snake and read a poem.

And it's like I was like I just kind of want to be in like a movie and then I basically did the student films all through college and I would like skip class to do those because I felt like it was such a better experience to be on set and that's how I met Emma the writer director of Shiva baby because I was in her thesis.

And so I felt like that kind of naturally brought me towards like tv and film and away from like plays for the short film.

Emma had seen me in another student film and I think she facebook message to me okay taking us back a couple years.

She facebook messaged me and I loved the script and the character and then after we shot the short we met for lunch and dig in or something and she was like talking about wanting to make this a movie and we started writing a movie together.

We were working on that and then we found out that the short got into south.

But it was just like so special because usually you don't get to do that where you do the shore and then you come back and you like get to be the character again.

So it was really special.

So I related to Danielle I think more by the time we shot the feature than I did when we were shooting the Shore.

I felt like I was going through a lot of relationships where it was all about like power who cared less.

Just so many things where I felt like heard and powerless and like I thought I was in control and then I'm not and I also really related to the journey of your family loving you but kind of being what is going on.

I felt that way when I was first doing comedy where my family supports me and cares about me, but it was kind of like we don't get this and you're trying to explain it to them, but you're like you just won't get it, but I know I'm doing something and then I also related to her things with food because like I said like during that time in my life and I felt really out of control, food was just an issue for me where it was either like I was trying to control myself by not eating it, I went on all these weird diets and I feel like Danielle in the film, she's not eating and then she stressed it's such another issue.

Um And so I really related to that part of her journey and then I next project is this super campy comedy.

I just watched Barb in Star and I loved that.

I thought it was so funny.

I also watched four at two, I loved that and I was like oh my God, I can't believe they like pulled this off in Covid.

We haven't had a big big box office comedies for a while and I think they're going to make a comeback because they're just so fun.

Um and I really miss that experience of being in a theater with people and laughing and everybody laughing and it just is like a summer comedy is like the best my dream collaborator I've already met, it's Emma.

Um but I'm going to say honestly, I think it would be so insane to work with lady gaga, like she just seems like such an essence like a persona.

Um and I think it would be so crazy to work with her.

Okay, what does my life look like in five years?

I'm 10 inches taller.

Um No.

Um Number one I would like to have a place that I'm living that I've been moving from Airbnb to Airbnb for like half a year and I'm like I need to put my feet down somewhere because it makes me feel crazy.

I would like to like help young women writing comedy, acting, anything like that, some sort of mentorship thing and like the ability to like invest in other women's films and stuff like that.

Everything, everything.

Yeah.

Yeah.