Rachel Stubington may be on “Shrinking” but her career is certainly growing.
It’s not often that an actress can be seen on a television show, a TV film and a Super Bowl commercial all around the same time.
“Shrinking,” on Apple TV+, stars Jason Segel as Jimmy, a therapist trying to deal with the sudden loss of his wife, who was killed in a car accident. In his grief, he hasn’t been the best father to his daughter, Alice, played exceptionally well with the right teenage attitude by Lukita Maxwell. Stubington plays Summer, Alice’s friend who jokes around with her about boys. Segel is spectacular as a therapist who uses tough love and causes people to make drastic changes. Harrison Ford is impressive as a fellow therapist and a sort of father figure to Jimmy.
Photo Courtesy of Rachel Stubington
The 22-year-old Stubington had grown up watching Segal and Ford, and on-set she was “so excited, and with the caliber of actors, of course I was nervous,” Stubington told the Journal. “So, I was just kind of numb and looked at it like I had to do my job well. You kind of just take a deep breath and go do it. Harrison Ford was really sweet and so encouraging. Jason Segel is like the nicest guy in the world, and he even complimented my audition tape. It was on the Warner Bros. lot, so that was really cool.”
Stubbington strikes the right refreshing and comedic chords on “Shrinking” where, in one scene, Summer jokes about acne. But her next role, in the Lifetime film “A Rose For Her Grave: The Randy Roth Story” strikes a darker note. Based on Ann Rule’s 1993 book “A Rose For Her Grave and Other True Cases,” it’s the true-crime tale of Roth, a serial killer who murders the women he marries so he can collect on their life insurance policies. Stubbington plays Dana Carlson, who comes to realize she is being groomed by a monster. \. The show premieres February 18.
“We shot it out of order so for the first scene, I had to be sobbing,” Stubbington said. “It was really amazing being on the show and doing the film. I think from an acting standpoint, I could sit with the character and learn whereas in the show I had to immediately know who the character was. Comedy and true crime are different, but I like to do different things.”
She said her favorite movie is “Clueless” and ironically, she was cast in a Super Bowl commercial opposite the movie’s star, Alicia Silverstone.
It’s for the cash back shopping app, Rakuten, with Silverstone reprising her role as Cher Horowitz in the hit movie’s debate scene. . While Stubington doesn’t have a line in the commercial, you can see the red-haired actress make an annoyed face as Silverstone hits her in the face with a blue bag as she walks by. She also stands and claps at the end.
“Alicia Silverstone was really sweet and so lively and I am a huge fan of hers so that was amazing,” Stubbington said. “To be in a commercial that you know costs millions, it’s an honor. Now I have to watch the Super Bowl. I wanted the 49ers to win.”
While many will be betting on the Chief or Eagles to win on February 12, the trade magazine Ad Age is predicting this commercial will be one of the most talked about Super Bowl spots.
Stubington said her parents were both athletes and her mom played basketball at the Maccabi Games
“My parents tried to get me to play different sports,” she said. “I was not good!”
But she found she was good at acting in plays as a student at New Community Jewish High School, where she starred as Inga in “Young Frankenstein” and played Marty in “Grease” before attending UCLA.
She currently teaches young children at Shomrei Torah Synagogue, and she can sing in Hebrew. She said her favorite holiday is Hanukkah.
While she is generally kind, she can be mean if she needs to be on camera.
Looking past the Super Bowl to the next step in her career, Stubington said “I love TV comedies and I’m glad to be in one.” But with Paramount producing a movie version of “Mean Girls,” the musical based on Lindsay Lohan’s 2004 hit, “I guess I would like to be in ‘Mean Girls,’” she said, adding that while she is generally kind, she can be mean if she needs to be on camera. “I know they’ve already done some casting, but it seems like it would be fun to be a part of.”
With her burgeoning career, has Stubington started getting messages from all her friends who knew her from school?
“It hasn’t happened yet,” she said. “But it might soon.”
