Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and immediately starts an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, appearing truly apologetic. Despite being only a bit late, she feels compelled to justify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, in this context, this is just what one hopes to hear. Additionally, it’s quite unsurprising. Viewers familiar with the fearlessly queer and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—that she penned with the director and starred in with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—can already know that she possesses plenty to say, ranging from on roles, intimacy, or the pros of starting a teen brawl society. And, by the end the latest eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star has even more thoughts on the darker side of modern youth (As a millennial, Sennott is a bridge to younger audiences, straddling eras adept for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, citing the show alongside the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as influences for the project, which tracks the travails of a social media star Tallulah and close companion and new agent portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the most significant spot on creative vision was reserved for the popular sitcom, the show about a rising celebrity navigating in a corrupt Hollywood (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She began viewing it during the pandemic, became “captivated”, and resolved to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The inspiration for I Love LA came—partly—from her own, at first rocky, relocation to LA and from the cosmic event, a frequently discussed event for enthusiasts. That period marked a phase that involved her understand some big life lessons, professionally and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Raised in the East Coast, Sennott commenced developing and showcasing humor while studying acting at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “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.”
She decided to act independently, taking the stage at amateur nights with Edebiri and posting hilarious (and very) unconventional comedy videos online. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on several females fetishistically obsessed with motherhood; a different one portrayed being employed at the brand Hollister as similar to being trapped in a horror film. By chance, she met Emma through campus film circles and eventually appearing in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her journey, she says, has been peers giving her a shot, rather than established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, continuing with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who were skeptical about Sennott earlier will likely be regretting it now. Through she describes as a “wild, full-circle” story, she has created an ideal role. In 2019 she posted content called about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a show about LA residents managing advantages of digital stardom (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your friend being suspected of being a intoxicated stealer, and possibly becoming a unreliable persona non grata). One might easy to create a program about internet celebrity that was overly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at the characters. This show avoids both, creating a depiction of advantaged twentysomething existence that’s candid about the chaos 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
