Rachel Sennott appears on the video call and right away starts an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, seeming genuinely regretful. She is only slightly behind, she feels compelled to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, for a writer, this is precisely what you want to encounter. Additionally, it’s quite expected. Those who have seen the unapologetically queer and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—that she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and starred in with her friend The Bear’s standout—will understand that she holds plenty to say, ranging from on roles, relationships, or the merits of creating a youth fight club. Plus, once you finish her new seasonal HBO series titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds additional thoughts about the struggles of Gen Z life (As a millennial, she serves as a relatable figure of the gang, a tale-end millennial skilled for straddling different age groups).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and the actress is enthusiastic, citing the show in addition to the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as guides for I Love LA, which follows the travails of a social media star Tallulah and close companion who is also fledgling agent Sennott’s character. However, the biggest spot on creative vision belonged to the popular sitcom, the show about an up-and-coming A-list actor making his way in a gritty entertainment industry (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott started watching it throughout lockdown, became “hooked”, and decided to put her own twist on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she explains. The inspiration for the series came—to some extent—from personal, at first rocky, move to Tinseltown and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about phenomenon for enthusiasts. It was a time that included her grasp some big insights, professionally and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Humble Origins
Raised in Connecticut, Sennott began developing and showcasing stand-up while pursuing performance at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She seized control, appearing at open mics with Edebiri and posting hysterical (and decidedly) unconventional skits online. One, Baby Cult, centered on a group of women fetishistically drawn to pregnancy; another envisioned being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being caught in a thriller. By chance, she met Seligman through the university’s film scene and ultimately appearing in her initial project, Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a Jewish wake with hints of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her journey, she explains, has been people her own age giving her a shot, rather than traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, adding humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Individuals who were skeptical regarding her then will likely be feeling foolish today. Through she describes as a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she appears to manifested the perfect project. Previously she shared a video named on LA life online, in which she parodied film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a series about Angelenos balancing the perks of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being accused of being a drug-addled thief, and possibly becoming a unreliable pariah). It would be tempting to create a series about internet celebrity that was overly aspirational—or, worse, one that belittled at the characters. I Love LA steers clear of each, making for a representation of affluent millennial life that’s candid about the mess and the appeal.
Empathetic Approach
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” she comments. “I think that young people have been through a lot – I’m mostly thinking of people younger than me, like my little sister, who went to college during Covid, so she had to come home, or my other sister who was doing school online.”|“The younger generation has faced significant
