Rachel Sennott joins the video call and at once starts an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, sounding genuinely remorseful. Although she's only slightly behind, she wants 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!” Luckily, in this context, that’s precisely what is ideal to hear. Moreover, it’s fairly expected. Viewers who know the boldly openly gay and outspoken film Bottoms—that she co-wrote with her creative partner and featured in together with close companion Ayo Edebiri—can be aware that she possesses plenty to share, be it on identity, intimacy, or the merits of forming a youth brawl society. Plus, after watching the recent seasonal program titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she has further thoughts regarding the darker side of modern youth (Now in her thirties, she serves as a bridge to younger audiences, straddling eras with a knack for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and the actress is an admirer, naming the show alongside the classic series, Insecure and the innovative program as inspirations for the project, which details the travails of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and aspiring talent manager Maia. Notably, the biggest presence on the moodboard went to the popular sitcom, that show about an emerging Hollywood star navigating in a corrupt LA scene (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott began viewing it throughout COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and decided to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she explains. The concept for I Love LA originated—partly—from personal, initially difficult, transition to Tinseltown and from the saturn return, a popular phenomenon for enthusiasts. It was an era that involved her learn some big truths, work-wise and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in New England, Sennott commenced 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. “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. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott seized control, performing at open mics with Ayo and sharing uproarious (and decidedly) bizarre skits on the internet. One, Baby Cult, followed a group of women intensely obsessed with motherhood; a different one envisioned being employed at the brand Hollister as akin to being caught in a horror film. By chance, she encountered Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ended up starring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a funeral gathering with shades of the intense thriller. The big theme of her career, she notes, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, instead of established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, stating humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who had doubts about her earlier will certainly be kicking themselves today. In what she labels a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she appears to manifested her dream vehicle. Previously she uploaded a video named about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she mocked movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a series about LA residents managing advantages of digital stardom (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being labeled as being a substance-abusing thief, and perhaps becoming a risky persona non grata). Some could tempting to produce a program about internet celebrity that was extremely glamorous—or, worse, one that belittled at those depicted. The series avoids both, resulting in a representation of advantaged twentysomething existence that’s candid about the mess and the shine.
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 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
