Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and immediately starts an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, appearing genuinely apologetic. Although she's only slightly delayed, she needs to clarify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, during an interview, that’s precisely what one hopes to encounter. Additionally, it’s fairly unsurprising. Viewers familiar with the fearlessly queer and outspoken movie titled Bottoms—which she penned with the director and starred in together with close companion Ayo Edebiri—can be aware that Sennott possesses a lot to say, whether about identity, sex, or the pros of forming a youth fight club. Furthermore, by the end her new seasonal show I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries even more thoughts on the darker side of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott serves as a relatable figure of the gang, on the cusp skilled for connecting both generations).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and the actress is an admirer, naming the show together with the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as influences for her series, which details the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also new agent portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the most significant presence on concept belonged to the HBO series, that show depicting an up-and-coming Hollywood star succeeding in an often-seedy entertainment industry (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it during the pandemic, became “hooked”, and decided to put her own twist on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she explains. The concept for this project emerged—in part—from personal, at first fractious, move to Los Angeles and from her saturn return, a popular occurrence for enthusiasts. This represented an era that saw her learn major life lessons, work-wise and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Humble Origins
Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott commenced creating and acting 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 says. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She took matters into her own hands, performing at amateur nights with Edebiri and posting hilarious (and distinctly) weird online content online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women obsessively drawn to having babies; a different one imagined working at the brand Hollister as like being caught in a scary movie. By chance, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of the intense thriller. The central motif of her path, she explains, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, rather than traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she confirms, stating amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who had doubts regarding her previously will likely be regretting it today. In what she describes as a “astonishingly complete” development, she appears to manifested an ideal role. Previously she shared a clip titled on LA life online, in which she mocked movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a comedy about LA residents managing benefits of digital stardom (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being suspected of being a drug-addled criminal, and perhaps becoming a risky pariah). It would be easy to make a series about online fame that was overly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that belittled at its subjects. The series avoids both, creating a depiction of privileged young adult life that’s candid about the mess 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
