IN NOVEMBER, Rachel Bloom, the co-creator and star of the CW’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, had trouble breathing during the table read for the show’s third-season finale. By the time she arrived at the conference room in the North Hollywood soundstage where the show tapes, she’d been working since 6:30 a.m. and had filmed three scenes for the penultimate episode, including a puppet-filled music video called “Buttload of Cats.” “This was the first time in three seasons where my body shut down,” she tells me later. “I got cold. I got chills. I was shaking. My throat closed up, and I was like, I think this is a panic attack.”
At any given moment during production, Bloom can be found writing, recording, acting, dancing, or giving notes on songs, scripts, look books,…
