Rachel Getting Merry

After seven seasons on Saturday Night Live , Rachel Dratch left in 2006 to star opposite fellow Second City alum Tina Fey in 30 Rock, only to get replaced by Jane Krakowski. (Insert Debbie Downer's signature sound effect, wah-wah. ) Now, a little more than a year after she complained to New York magazine about lack of work, Dratch springs back into the spotlight with two female-driven films: Spring Breakdown, a wild romp she cocreated about three 30-something misfits experiencing their first spring break (on DVD June 2), and My Life in Ruins, Nia Vardalos's big fat return to Grecian romantic comedy (in theaters June 5). Also no stranger to mullet-sporting lesbian parts, the 43-year-old comedian breaks down lazy gay jokes and tired gay stereotypes for Advocate.com.

Advocate.com:Your costar Amy Poehler recently told The Advocate that Spring Breakdown is "made for the gays." Did you and out director-screenwriter Ryan Shiraki really have the gay audience in mind when making it?
Rachel Dratch: Well, Ryan always has the gay audience in mind. We set out to make the kind of broad comedy you always see featuring guys, but with women in the leads. I guess it turned out a little campy, and gay men seem to dig it, which is good. It also stars Parker Posey and Jane Lynch, who have quite a following. Ryan does call the movie "a gay acid trip."

How did you and Ryan meet?
Ryan used to work in the talent office of Saturday Night Live, coordinating the musical guests. We actually met at my SNL audition; he came up to me afterwards. We only overlapped for a year, but we became instant buddies, and he would make me laugh all the time -- like he'd just walk by, throw a white towel over his head like a turban, and say, "I'm Susan!" But we were like work buddies who didn't really hang out in our spare time. He left after a year to go become a writer, but we remained friends. Then one night when he was back in town from L.A. we had dinner with a group of people. He was supposed to stay with a friend in Brooklyn, but he had the flu or something, so he stayed on my couch because we were right by my apartment. Well, the next morning was 9/11. So we really bonded, even though that's kind of a morbid touch to the story. It sealed our friendship.

Why didn't Spring Breakdown get a theatrical release?
I've been told so many different reasons, and none of them really make sense to me. I've been told it's because there isn't a major movie star like Drew Barrymore or Cameron Diaz, so a studio would have to put twice as much into marketing than it cost to make it. When I found out we were going to screen it at Sundance, I was like, "OK, this'll be a fun little ending to the whole thing." It did pretty well, but it was just there as a fun midnight movie. But we just screened it at Seattle Film Festival, and it got so many laughs at both screenings. This is a goofy movie, so it did much better in front of regular people than the industry people at Sundance. It was kind of bittersweet because it made me wonder, Wait, why isn't this getting released? That kind of sucks, but I hope it has a life on DVD and maybe becomes a cult movie.

Were you working through some demons from your own college days at Dartmouth by making Breakdown ?
It was some sort of catharsis. I went to parties and stuff, but I wish I had been more wild and crazy in college. Some stuff in the movie was definitely based on my real experiences. I did have a roommate who was always having sex, and I did not get into a sorority, so I put those in there. Whenever things would get really goofy, we tried to bring some reality to it as well.