Rachel Sennott joins the video call and immediately starts an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, seeming really remorseful. Despite being only a couple of minutes delayed, she wants to justify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, for a writer, this is just what is ideal to encounter. Besides, it’s fairly unsurprising. Viewers who know her boldly queer and brash movie titled Bottoms—that Sennott penned with Emma Seligman and starred in together with close companion the talented actress—would be aware that Sennott holds much to say, ranging from on roles, sex, or the appeal of forming a high-school fight club. Furthermore, once you finish the new multi-episode HBO series titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star holds further thoughts about the challenges of Gen Z life (At 30, she serves as a bridge to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial adept for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and the actress is an admirer, citing the show in addition to the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for I Love LA, which tracks the journey of a social media star Tallulah and her friend and fledgling agent portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the biggest influence on the moodboard went to the popular sitcom, the program about a rising celebrity succeeding in a gritty LA scene (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott started watching it amid COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and resolved to add a fresh perspective on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she says. The concept for the series emerged—in part—from her own, originally rocky, relocation to LA and from her cosmic event, a popular event for astrology heads. It was a phase that involved her learn significant truths, work-wise 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. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in the East Coast, Sennott started writing and performing comedy while studying acting at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, performing at live shows with her friend and uploading hilarious (and distinctly) unconventional online content digitally. One, Baby Cult, followed a group of women intensely fixated on having babies; a different one envisioned being employed at the brand Hollister as akin to being trapped in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Emma through campus film circles and ultimately appearing in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her path, she says, has been peers offering opportunities, as opposed to traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, continuing humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who had doubts about her then will certainly be feeling foolish today. In what she describes as a “astonishingly complete” story, she has created an ideal role. Previously she posted a clip named on LA life on the internet, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a comedy about city dwellers balancing advantages of internet fame (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being accused of being a drug-addled thief, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). Some could tempting to produce a series about digital influence that was horribly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at those depicted. This show steers clear of each, making for a representation of privileged twentysomething living that’s honest about the chaos and the glamour.
Balanced Perspective
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” she observes. “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
