Rachel Sennott enters the video call and immediately launches into an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, sounding genuinely apologetic. Despite being only slightly late, she feels compelled to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, during an interview, this is just what is ideal to hear. Moreover, it’s quite expected. Viewers who know her unapologetically LGBTQ+ and outspoken film Bottoms—which she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and starred in with her friend The Bear’s standout—would be aware that she holds plenty to say, be it about gender, relationships, or the merits of forming a teen fight club. Plus, by the end her latest eight-part show titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star carries further thoughts about the challenges of modern youth (At 30, she is an honorary member of the gang, straddling eras skilled for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress is an admirer, naming it alongside the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as guides for I Love LA, which details the journey of online personality Tallulah and her friend who is also aspiring agent portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the most significant spot on creative vision belonged to the HBO series, the show about a rising Hollywood star navigating in a gritty Hollywood (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She discovered it throughout the pandemic, became “captivated”, and decided to add a fresh perspective on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she says. The concept for the series came—to some extent—from firsthand, initially fractious, move to Tinseltown and from her cosmic event, a much-talked-about event for astrology heads. It was a phase that involved her grasp major insights, work-wise and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Humble Origins
Raised in Connecticut, Sennott commenced developing and showcasing 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.” 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.”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, performing at amateur nights with Ayo and uploading hilarious (and distinctly) bizarre comedy videos on the internet. One, Baby Cult, followed a group of women intensely obsessed with pregnancy; another portrayed being employed at the brand Hollister as akin to being caught in a horror film. By chance, she met Emma through the university’s film scene and ultimately featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a religious event with echoes of the intense thriller. The central motif of her path, she notes, has been people her own age supporting her, instead of traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, stating with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Anyone who questioned about her previously will likely be kicking themselves today. In what she calls a “wild, full-circle” story, she appears to manifested her dream vehicle. A few years back she uploaded content named about Los Angeles online, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a comedy about LA residents juggling the perks of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being labeled as being a drug-addled thief, and potentially becoming a risky pariah). Some could tempting to produce a show about digital influence that was horribly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at the characters. The series steers clear of each, resulting in a portrait of advantaged young adult life that’s candid about the mess and the appeal.
Balanced Perspective
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
