Rachel Sennott joins the digital interview and at once starts an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, seeming really remorseful. Although she's only slightly behind, she needs to explain. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, in this context, that’s exactly what one hopes to hear. Moreover, it’s fairly expected. Anyone who have seen the fearlessly LGBTQ+ and brash movie titled Bottoms—that she collaborated on with her creative partner and starred in together with close companion The Bear’s standout—would already know that she possesses plenty to say, be it on identity, sex, or the merits of creating a youth brawl society. Plus, after watching her recent eight-part show I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries additional insights on the struggles of Gen Z life (At 30, she serves as a relatable figure to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial adept for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and Sennott readily acknowledges an admirer, citing the show alongside Sex and the City, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as guides for the project, which tracks the journey of online personality Tallulah and close companion who is also aspiring representative Maia. Perhaps, the most significant influence on concept went to the HBO series, that HBO sitcom focusing on an emerging celebrity navigating in an often-seedy entertainment industry (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She discovered it throughout COVID-19, became “hooked”, and resolved to put her own twist on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The idea for the series came—partly—from her own, initially fractious, move to Los Angeles and from her saturn return, a frequently discussed occurrence for enthusiasts. That period marked a time that saw her learn significant truths, professionally and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Starting Out
Raised in the East Coast, Sennott commenced creating and acting stand-up while enrolled in performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “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 decided to act independently, taking the stage at open mics with her friend and posting uproarious (and distinctly) bizarre comedy videos digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed characters intensely obsessed with pregnancy; a different one imagined working at the brand Hollister as akin to being stuck in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Seligman through NYU’s movie community and eventually starring in her first film, Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her career, she notes, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, instead of established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she repeats, adding amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who were skeptical about her then will surely be feeling foolish today. Through she describes as a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she seems to have manifested the perfect project. A few years back she posted a video named about Los Angeles online, in which she lampooned movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a show about Angelenos managing advantages of online celebrity (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your friend being suspected of being a drug-addled criminal, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). It would be easy to produce a show about digital influence that was extremely aspirational—or, worse, one that punched down at those depicted. I Love LA avoids both, creating a representation of affluent millennial existence that’s frank about the chaos and the glamour.
Empathetic Approach
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
