Exclusive Q&A with “I Love Bekka & Lucy” Creator Rachael Holder

I’ve always been writing and directing. When I was a kid I used to worry about how I’d still be able to make plays and stuff as an adult with a regular job. After college, I unluckily (or luckily) graduated into the recession. Getting a regular job was impossible for most people. So I applied to graduate school. I lived in Cape Town South Africa where I wrote my first movie and then I got into NYU. At Tisch, that’s when I really started to think of writing more as of a career choice than this hobby that I had been doing all of my life. But I think my whole childhood and then making the movie in Cape Town was the real start.

I grew up on Long Island about forty-five minutes from Manhattan. I think it helped my career to be so close to the city, though. My father would take me to the theater a lot growing up. He works in midtown. I didn’t know the language of how to make theater into a career. But storytelling has always been a big part of my life. I think it helped me that my career started as a fun thing I loved as a kid rather than a job that I wanted to do. It doesn’t feel like work for me. I think that’s helpful in any career.

Bekka and Lucy are based on characters from the web series that Warner Brother’s bought before hiring me to write ILB&L for their new digital platform. I wanted to write a story that was grounded in truth and reflected my best friendships with the women in my life. I wanted to write a show about black women that wasn’t about their blackness without negating it. When I was figuring out the story, I was in the midst of getting married and reflecting on what it felt like when my best friend was getting married. I felt like she was dying. With distance the irrational fears of my twenties were funny.

It’s tough to make them real if I don’t have empathy for every character that I write, so I can relate to all of them.

It was the first offer that made the most sense. Bekka and Lucy were characters in a web series with episodes that were only two minutes long. The series was leaning toward a short-form kind of story arc. And it was fun to write it like that.  Short form feels a lot like theater.

Glenn’s interaction with the women at the start of the series characterizes a lot of my real life interactions with older white men.

I Love Bekka & Lucy has been my favorite professional project to be a part of so far. It was a really great experience filming the show. I had the best crew and cast. My DP, Jack Caswell, is one of the most talented people that I know and one of my favorite collaborators. He made first time directing feel easy. Working with Tanisha and Jessica was such a thrill because they are such pros. They had never met each other so they really needed to be amazing to create that kind of chemistry. I have also never been professionally produced like that before and it was a really great experience working with Haven on set. One of my producers, from Haven, Jordana Mollick, should be on everyone’s set. I also really enjoyed the writing process with WB. I had never looked forward to a work call like that before.

You can keep up Rachael through her website. Also be sure to check out the digital series “I Love Bekka & Lucy” online on Stage13.com or on YouTube!