The Love Hypothesis’ Rachel Marsh Wants to Change the Old Rom-com Formula

Her Filipino Hawaiian roots bring a personal connection to a beloved Filipino tradition featured in the film.

For an actress who believes science is not her forte, Rachel Marsh has played her fair share of quick-witted researchers. Previously portraying a biotech scientist in Netflix’s Unstable, Marsh returns once more to the STEM world as Ahn Pham in The Love Hypothesis. A voice of reason to the ever-anxious Olive Smith (played by Lili Reinhart), Marsh injects both humor and vulnerability into her version of Ahn, resisting the usual Asian stereotypes.  

Contrary to the studious trope often associated with Asian characters, Ahn talks in a constant rhythm of punchy jokes and snappy remarks. Unabashedly witty and sensitive, she is a grounding force that snaps Olive out of her mental spirals. Oscillating between being caring and sassy at the right moments, Marsh had to trust that her comedic instincts would let her land the lines. 

Coming from a world of comedy and improvisation, Marsh had grown accustomed to hearing the immediate reaction of a live audience. Being surrounded by only cameras and crew, she shares that acting out Ahn’s humor was a practice of careful timing, one that might come off as insensitive if executed poorly. 

“You’re not performing in the same way, so you have to trust that your instincts are correct. In a lot of ways it’s experimental,” she says, explaining that she relied both on director Claire Scanlon and the script to tread the line between Ahn’s outspoken and delicate side. 

Admittedly, there were parts of the screen adaptation that left Marsh initially worried. Regarding the decision to change Ahn’s ethnicity from Taiwanese to Filipino, she says, “I think it’s tricky because you want to honor the book and what people fell in love with, but also honor what’s true about the actor.” 

Early in their time in the Stanford Biology PhD program, Ahn realizes Olive has no family to go home to for the holidays, so she takes Olive under her wing. Entering the Pham home, Olive encounters the familiar staples of a Filipino Christmas, with Ahn’s relatives warmly greeting Olive over a table full of lumpia and pancit. Marsh shares that this scene was partly a product of her own upbringing and personal experiences.

“My dad is Filipino, and he grew up in Hawaii, so it was cool to see people’s responses who hadn’t ever seen what a Filipino Christmas looks like,” she says. 

By making Ahn Filipino American, Marsh feels that the adaptation remains faithful to the compassion and loyalty at the heart of the character, while also allowing her to bring her own heritage into the role. 

“It will be important to a lot of girls who watch this movie to see themselves represented in that way,” she says, emphasizing how rare it can be for an international movie to portray aspects of Filipino tradition. 

If this were a different rom-com movie, Ahn and Olive’s friendship would have fallen prey to the typical romantic rivalry common in other films. However, when Olive discovers Ahn has sparked a romance with her longtime crush Jeremy (Nicholas Duvernay), she tries to convince Ahn she has a fake boyfriend, who turns out to be terror professor Dr. Adam Carlsen (Tom Bateman), so that Ahn can spend more time with him. In a highly competitive, male-dominated world of academia, their bond subverts the romantic jealousy prevalent in the genre. “I think a lot of times that trope of women being pitted against each other doesn’t feel true in everyday life,” Marsh says. 

It’s apparent that the film is concerned with Olive’s relationships outside of her romance with Dr. Carlsen. For Olive and Ahn, dating is of low priority in their world. Vying for research grants and surviving their grueling lab hours, the women are far more interested in their academic careers. When Olive finds out that the results for her application for a spot at Harvard professor Dr. Tom Benton’s laboratory (Arty Froushan) are released, Ahn encourages her. “We’re really rooting for each other in our professional and romantic relationships. Hopefully our conversations pass the Bechdel test,” says Marsh. 

Avoiding the reductionist portrayals of female friendship, Marsh is able to portray a brave Ahn. At a serious point in the film, Olive is sexually harassed by Dr. Tom Benton. Afraid to fight back in fear that Benton’s seniority might kill her career, she distances herself from Carlsen. When she opens up about her harassment to her best friend, Ahn helps her find the strength to speak up. 

“It’s such a privilege to do this scene because it is something that a lot of women in any profession have to encounter, unfortunately. They rely on their friends to get them through, and the situation was no different,” says Marsh. 

When tackling hard conversations on gender-based violence in the STEM field, Marsh says that these were the moments where establishing an unapologetic but kind-hearted character pays off.  “I felt very inspired by her in playing her in this film because it only led to positive things in Ahn’s life by having Olive in her life too,” Marsh says. In being able to discuss the ugly realities women have to face, the film holds onto the friendships that are at the heart of the story.

For Marsh, who feels grateful to be part of a project that has changed the way rom-coms are told to an audience, she hopes her version of Ahn shows a different type of love we’ve all needed at some point. On a final note, she says, “The rom-com [genre] is essentially romantic, but then I do really think that Ahn and Olive are each other’s greatest loves.”