‘Adults’ Star Rachel Marsh on Why Carly’s ‘Hiccups (Body Goes Crazy)’ Is Her Dream Come True

Adults Season 2 has delivered its fair share of pop culture contributions, but among the most influential is K-Pop tune, “Hiccups (Body Goes Crazy),” sung by Carly (Rachel Marsh), a.k.a. “Carly with a Y.”

Introduced in Season 1 as Samir’s (Malik Elassal) girlfriend, Carly, Marsh’s character continued in her role, but found herself in the spotlight during Season 2’s sixth episode, “Pop Girlie,” when she revealed her new single to Samir and pals Billie (Lucy Freyer), Issa (Amita Rao), Anton (Owen Thiele), and Paul Baker (Jack Innanen). And the rest was history as she poured her school savings into producing a one-of-a-kind music video in order to launch her K-Pop career.

In the end, the dental student realized the error of her ways with a little help from Samir, but not before she’d poured in some serious funds. Despite the hiccup (pun intended), Carly and Samir’s biggest challenge came when she decided she was going to continue her education in Seattle alone, leading to an amicable breakup, but one that sparked one of Season 2’s biggest twists as Samir and Billie hooked up.

Below, Marsh opens up about bringing “Hiccups (Body Goes Crazy)” to life, embracing Carly’s inner K-Pop star, and where she stands on the Samir-Billie situation.

FX

What was your reaction to learning you’d be singing this K-pop song in Season 2? 

Rachel Marsh: It was a miracle. I mean, I had no idea. I knew that Carly was coming back in some capacity, and I knew that there was a good [writers’] room this year because I had a couple of friends in it, and Ben [Kronengold] and Rebecca [Shaw] are so brilliant that truly any kind of storyline was gonna be hilarious, but I mean, they didn’t know that my dream come true is to become a K-pop star, so I was thrilled. I think I did have tears in my eyes, and I’m not even kidding. It was a dream when [they] told me.

Did you have any creative input on “Hiccups (Body Goes Crazy)”? 

My involvement was so minimal in making the song. It really was a collab between Charlie [& The Darlings], our songwriter and our composer, and Ben and Rebecca, and the writer, Rob Rosell. I remember when we read it, I hadn’t heard what the song was going to be, and so it just was like words on the page. And you know, the words are insane, right? So in my head, I had no idea how the rhythm went. It was fun to kind of play around with that and then see where they landed with it musically. I had a lot of involvement in is singing the song. So when we recorded it in the studio, it was really a collaboration. So, Charlie and Ben and Rebecca and the producers were on Zoom, and Raffi [Donatich] was with me in the room, and we just kind of played around.

I’ve never had that experience, obviously recording a song, and I think that every single girl’s dream is to record a song, even if you don’t know it yet. Once you get in the studio, it is something that overtakes your body in a way that you don’t expect. I really did take it seriously, and I think we were very serious about making a bad song. The ironic part is that everyone is now wanting it to be a full song and is taking it very seriously. I just had such a blast.

FX

Are you a big singer? Was it strange having to perform badly on purpose?

I’m Filipino, so legally I have to have a karaoke machine in my living room, and I sing all the time. It was not that I’m a good singer, but I think you can’t help but try to be good when you’re recording a song. So, what we had to do most of the time is just make it worse, and so instead of hitting a full note, you’re trying to make your voice a little bit too strained because that feels right for Carly. And so, it was a fun practice in being sloppy and messy and going for it and doing these really high notes for Ben and Rebecca to be like, “OK, that was great, let’s make it actually worse than that.” That was super fun. And then of course, everything lives in the edit, so Charlie did such an amazing job actually picking the best takes and putting it together.

Would Paul Baker be the president of Carly’s fan club? 

Oh yeah, Jack’s my manager. You know, I think that Paul Baker is my manager. I feel like they would have a really awesome collaboration. Yeah, we’ve got to get Jack in the studio. We’ve got to get him to sing “Hiccups,” like a featured singer on the “Hiccups” remix because he knows all the words already.

He has the connections. He’s friends with Julia Fox…

Of course, oh my god, that’s such a good idea. We need Julia. We need Paul Baker. Yeah, we need that, FX, we need that.

Samir prides himself on being a good boyfriend this season. Was he too supportive for Carly’s own good though?

No, I think he was being such a good boyfriend. It’s hard when you’re in your twenties. You need to have yes people around you all the time, especially if it’s your partner. I think it’s hard to have perspective when you’re living in the moment, but I think your twenties are for experimenting and trying bats**t crazy ideas. I think he did exactly that; even though he knew that I wasn’t good at it, he knew that I wanted to try it. In that sense, that is what any good partner should be doing.

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My hot take is that it’s OK to lie to people if you’re trying to save them from something and it’s harmless. I think it’s OK to tell a white lie. In this case, maybe a little harmful, right? Because she spent a lot of her money on this music video, and we don’t know how much that is, but I’m guessing it’s in the thousands. I do feel like it was a bit of a loss, but you know, he came to a point where he did tell the truth by the end of the episode. So, yeah, I think that even though it was messy, it was the right thing to do.

How would Carly feel about Samir hooking up with Billie right after their breakup? 

I like to think we live in a world where she’ll never find out. So she just doesn’t know, and I think that’s fine. They are broken up. So, as much as I feel like people are saying she should be upset, I just don’t feel like she knows. I think that it’s OK.

If Adults returns for Season 3, what would you like to see next for Carly? 

I want to see Carly win at something. I feel like she needs to win. Either she’s in a really good relationship or she does take off in a way that nobody expects, or she’s just a thriving dentist. I just want to see her at peace.

FX’s Adults, Season 2, Streaming Now, Hulu