Rachel Sennott enters the video call and right away starts an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, sounding genuinely regretful. She is only slightly delayed, she wants to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, in this context, that’s exactly what is ideal to hear. Moreover, it’s pretty unsurprising. Anyone who have seen her fearlessly LGBTQ+ and brash movie Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with Emma Seligman and featured in together with her friend the talented actress—can understand that she holds plenty to say, whether about roles, relationships, or the appeal of forming a high-school combat group. And, once you finish the new multi-episode show titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries even more perspectives about the struggles of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott serves as a bridge of the gang, a tale-end millennial adept for bridging different age groups).
Influences and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and Sennott readily acknowledges an admirer, citing the show in addition to the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as guides for her series, which tracks the travails of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion and aspiring agent Maia. Perhaps, the largest influence on creative vision went to Entourage, that HBO sitcom depicting an up-and-coming celebrity succeeding in a corrupt Hollywood (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She began viewing it amid the pandemic, became “captivated”, and decided to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she explains. The concept for this project came—to some extent—from firsthand, originally difficult, transition to Tinseltown and from the astrological phase, a popular event for enthusiasts. That period marked an era that included her grasp some big truths, in her career and in private life. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she says. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Humble Origins
Growing up in New England, Sennott began creating and acting comedy while studying theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, performing at amateur nights with Edebiri and sharing hysterical (and distinctly) weird skits digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted a group of women intensely obsessed with pregnancy; a different one portrayed being employed at the brand Hollister as like being stuck in a horror film. By chance, she encountered Emma through campus film circles and ultimately starring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a religious event with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her career, she says, has been people her own age offering opportunities, as opposed to the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, adding with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Individuals who had doubts regarding her earlier will certainly be kicking themselves today. As part of she calls a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she has created an ideal role. A few years back she posted a video titled on LA life on social media, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a show about city dwellers balancing advantages of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being accused of being a substance-abusing thief, and perhaps becoming a risky outcast). It would be simple to make a program about internet celebrity that was overly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that punched down at its subjects. The series steers clear of each, creating a portrait of affluent young adult living that’s honest about the mess and the shine.
Empathetic Approach
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” 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
