Rachel Sennott appears on the video call and immediately begins an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, appearing truly apologetic. Despite being only a couple of minutes behind, she feels compelled to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, during an interview, that’s exactly what is ideal to experience. Besides, it’s pretty expected. Anyone who know her boldly queer and outspoken project titled Bottoms—that Sennott penned with the director and featured in together with her friend Ayo Edebiri—will be aware that she holds a lot to share, whether about identity, relationships, or the pros of starting a high-school combat group. Furthermore, once you finish the latest multi-episode show titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she holds even more perspectives regarding the darker side of modern youth (As a millennial, Sennott represents a relatable figure of the gang, on the cusp adept for bridging both generations).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott is an admirer, citing the show together with the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as guides for I Love LA, which follows the struggles of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and aspiring talent manager Maia. Notably, the largest influence on the moodboard went to the HBO series, that HBO sitcom focusing on an up-and-coming celebrity navigating in a corrupt LA scene (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it during lockdown, became “obsessed”, and decided to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she notes. The inspiration for this project came—partly—from her own, originally rocky, move to LA and from her saturn return, a frequently discussed phenomenon for followers. That period marked a time that involved her understand major truths, in her career and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she admits. “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…”
Starting Out
Brought up in Connecticut, the star started developing and showcasing humor while studying theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She seized control, taking the stage at live shows with her friend and sharing hysterical (and distinctly) bizarre skits digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted a group of women fetishistically drawn to pregnancy; another portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being stuck in a horror film. Interestingly, she encountered Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ended up appearing in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a religious event with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her journey, she notes, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, rather than traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, continuing with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Those who were skeptical regarding Sennott then will likely be feeling foolish today. In what she calls a “wild, full-circle” story, she appears to created an ideal role. Previously she uploaded a clip named “it’s LA” online, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a comedy about Angelenos managing the perks of online celebrity (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being suspected of being a substance-abusing stealer, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). It would be easy to make a series about digital influence that was overly idealized—or, worse, one that punched down at the characters. I Love LA avoids both, making for a representation of advantaged young adult living that’s frank about the mess and the shine.
Nuanced Portrayal
“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
