Rachel Sennott joins the online meeting and immediately starts an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, appearing truly apologetic. Although she's only a couple of minutes behind, she needs to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, in this context, this is just what one hopes to hear. Additionally, it’s quite unsurprising. Anyone who know her fearlessly openly gay and outspoken project titled Bottoms—that Sennott penned with Emma Seligman and appeared in with close companion The Bear’s standout—will understand that Sennott possesses a lot to discuss, be it about gender, sex, or the appeal of forming a teen fight club. Furthermore, after watching her latest multi-episode HBO series I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she has additional insights regarding the challenges of young adulthood (As a millennial, Sennott serves as an honorary member of the gang, on the cusp skilled for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
Parallels to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress readily acknowledges an admirer, naming the show alongside Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as influences for I Love LA, which tracks the struggles of a social media star Tallulah and ally who is also aspiring agent Maia. Perhaps, the most significant spot on concept went to the popular sitcom, that show focusing on a rising celebrity succeeding in an often-seedy LA scene (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott started watching it during lockdown, became “captivated”, and decided to add a fresh perspective 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 inspiration for the series originated—in part—from her own, originally difficult, transition to Tinseltown and from the cosmic event, a much-talked-about phenomenon for followers. This represented an era that saw her learn significant life lessons, professionally and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Starting Out
Raised in Connecticut, Sennott started writing and performing humor while enrolled in performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott decided to act independently, taking the stage at amateur nights with Ayo and posting hysterical (and distinctly) bizarre online content digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on several females fetishistically fixated on having babies; another envisioned being employed at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being trapped in a horror film. By chance, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and ultimately starring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a Jewish wake with shades of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her path, she explains, has been people her own age offering opportunities, rather than traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, continuing with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who had doubts regarding Sennott then will certainly be regretting it currently. In what she labels a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she seems to have manifested an ideal role. In 2019 she uploaded a video titled “it’s LA” online, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a show about city dwellers juggling the perks of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your friend being labeled as being a drug-addled thief, and potentially becoming a unreliable pariah). One might easy to make a series about digital influence that was horribly aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at those depicted. I Love LA steers clear of each, making for a portrait of advantaged twentysomething existence that’s honest about the chaos and the shine.
Balanced Perspective
“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
