Rachel Sennott enters the digital interview and at once starts an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, sounding really apologetic. Although she's only slightly behind, she feels compelled to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, during an interview, that’s just what one hopes to hear. Besides, it’s fairly unsurprising. Anyone who know her boldly LGBTQ+ and outspoken movie titled Bottoms—that she penned with Emma Seligman and featured in with collaborator the talented actress—would be aware that she holds a lot to say, whether about roles, relationships, or the pros of forming a youth combat group. And, by the end the recent seasonal show I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds additional thoughts regarding the struggles of Gen Z life (As a millennial, she is a bridge to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial skilled for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and Sennott readily acknowledges a fan, citing it in addition to the HBO hit, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as guides for the project, which details the journey of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also fledgling agent Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the largest presence on the moodboard was reserved for the popular sitcom, the program focusing on an emerging celebrity navigating in a gritty LA scene (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott discovered it during the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and chose to create a new version 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 says. The concept for I Love LA emerged—in part—from her own, originally difficult, move to Tinseltown and from the cosmic event, a much-talked-about occurrence for followers. It was a phase that involved her learn significant life lessons, in her career and in private life. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she says. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Humble Origins
Raised in the East Coast, the star began writing and performing humor while enrolled in acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “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. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott decided to act independently, taking the stage at amateur nights with Edebiri and posting uproarious (and very) weird online content on the internet. One, Baby Cult, followed a group of women intensely fixated on having babies; a different one imagined being employed at the brand Hollister as like being caught in a horror film. By chance, she connected with Emma through the university’s film scene and ended up starring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her journey, she notes, has been people her own age supporting her, as opposed to established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, continuing with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who had doubts about Sennott then will likely be kicking themselves today. In what she labels a “astonishingly complete” story, she appears to achieved the perfect project. In 2019 she uploaded content named on LA life online, in which she lampooned movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a show about Angelenos managing advantages of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your client being labeled as being a drug-addled criminal, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). It would be tempting to make a series about internet celebrity that was horribly idealized—or, worse, one that belittled at the characters. This show does neither, resulting in a representation of advantaged young adult life that’s candid about the chaos and the glamour.
Nuanced Portrayal
“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
