Has digging into season 2 made you think about your own crazy ex-girlfriend moments, if you have any?

"In some ways, I always felt like a crazy ex-girlfriend. But it was very self-flagellating, because when you're a crazy ex, it's like: 'Oh my god, my ex is crazy.' Nine times out of 10, if someone is acting insane, the other person has done something to merit that person being insane — there's a culpability on the side of both parties.

"I never did anything like Rebecca because, in some ways, I think that I have always been able to pursue happiness in ways that Rebecca can't. I've always pursued theater — that was always my passion. My parents never forced me to do anything I didn't wanna do, unlike Rebecca's mother."

Her mom is just terrifying.

"Terrifying, but so true — so relatable to me [laughs]. I never got to that level of misery. I think I was always afraid of being seen as crazy. Which, Rebecca doesn't have that fear as much. For me, it's really like: I want to be seen as rational, I want to be seen as not crazy.

"And so, I think that inside I felt like Rebecca, emotionally. But I never did half the things that she did because there was a certain — in a good way — self-censorship on my actions. But I let myself become boy-crazy in ways that I still find debasing of myself. I didn't ever climb outside of a guy's room to stalk him — it was all subtle things. But those subtle things, in many ways, were me lying to myself. That's almost more humiliating than climbing a tree outside of a guy's house to stalk him."

We also seem to have our work cut out for us in terms of undoing the "crazy girlfriend" stereotype.

"The world, for so many years, has been ruled by men. Still is. With that, you get the male gaze, the way men see the world. [It's] the de facto: 'This is the way everything should be.' I was talking to a screenwriter, and I asked him: 'Why do male screenwriters often write, Pretty but doesn't know it? Why is that such a fantasy — that a woman would be pretty and doesn't know it?'

"He goes: 'Well, men want to write someone who is hot, but who they could theoretically fuck. Because women who are pretty and do know it don't wanna fuck screenwriters.' [laughs] If women were the prevailing force in the world, I think you'd have a different standard. Gender is a very complicated thing that I'm still actively learning about — I think we're all still actively learning about gender. Especially people I know who are trans. They think about gender in a way that I have never had to."

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend returns to the CW on Friday, October 21, at 9 p.m. EST.