Rachel Sennott appears on the video call and immediately begins an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, appearing really regretful. She is only a couple of minutes behind, she feels compelled to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, during an interview, that’s precisely what one hopes to experience. Besides, it’s pretty unsurprising. Anyone familiar with the boldly openly gay and unapologetically crass project titled Bottoms—which she penned with her creative partner and featured in together with close companion Ayo Edebiri—can be aware that Sennott possesses much to share, be it about identity, sex, or the pros of forming a teen combat group. Furthermore, after watching the new multi-episode program titled I Love LA, viewers realize that the star has additional perspectives on the darker side of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, she is an honorary member of the gang, straddling eras adept for straddling both generations).
Influences and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and the actress is an admirer, naming the show alongside the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as inspirations for I Love LA, which follows the travails of a social media star Tallulah and close companion and new agent Maia. However, the most significant presence on the moodboard went to the popular sitcom, that program depicting an up-and-coming Hollywood star succeeding in an often-seedy entertainment industry (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott started watching it throughout the pandemic, became “captivated”, and resolved 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 explains. The idea for the series came—in part—from her own, at first fractious, move to Tinseltown and from her cosmic event, a popular event for enthusiasts. This represented a time that involved her grasp some big truths, professionally and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” 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
Raised in the East Coast, the star started creating and acting humor while enrolled in theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she explains. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, appearing at live shows with her friend and sharing uproarious (and decidedly) weird online content digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women intensely fixated on motherhood; another envisioned being employed at the brand Hollister as similar to being stuck in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she met Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up featuring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a funeral gathering with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her path, she notes, has been peers offering opportunities, as opposed to established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she confirms, continuing humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who questioned regarding Sennott earlier will surely be feeling foolish currently. In what she calls a “wild, full-circle” development, she appears to manifested her dream vehicle. In 2019 she posted a video named about Los Angeles online, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a show about LA residents balancing the perks of online celebrity (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being accused of being a substance-abusing stealer, and possibly becoming a unreliable outcast). Some could easy to produce a show about digital influence that was extremely glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at those depicted. This show does neither, making for a depiction of advantaged young adult existence that’s frank about the chaos and the appeal.
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 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
