Rachel Sennott enters the digital interview and at once launches into an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, seeming genuinely remorseful. Although she's only slightly delayed, she needs 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!” Luckily, in this context, that’s precisely what you want to encounter. Moreover, it’s pretty unsurprising. Anyone who know the fearlessly openly gay and outspoken movie titled Bottoms—that she penned with the director and appeared in together with collaborator The Bear’s standout—will already know that she has a lot to share, be it about identity, relationships, or the merits of creating a teen combat group. And, once you finish her latest eight-part show titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she has additional perspectives regarding the challenges of Gen Z life (As a millennial, Sennott serves as a relatable figure for this generation, a tale-end millennial skilled for connecting both generations).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and the actress admits to being a fan, naming it together with the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as influences for her series, which follows the journey of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also new talent manager Maia. However, the biggest influence on creative vision belonged to the popular sitcom, the show focusing on an emerging celebrity navigating in a corrupt entertainment industry (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott began viewing it during COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and resolved 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 notes. The inspiration for this project came—in part—from personal, originally rocky, relocation to Tinseltown and from her saturn return, a frequently discussed phenomenon for followers. This represented an era that included her learn major truths, professionally and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Humble Origins
Growing up in the East Coast, the star began developing and showcasing comedy while enrolled in performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she explains. “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.”
Sennott decided to act independently, performing at open mics with Ayo and posting hysterical (and decidedly) bizarre skits online. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted a group of women obsessively drawn to having babies; another imagined being employed at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being caught in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ended up featuring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a funeral gathering with hints of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her path, she notes, has been peers giving her a shot, rather than established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, adding amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who questioned regarding her then will certainly be kicking themselves now. Through she describes as a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she seems to have created her dream vehicle. Previously she shared a clip named “it’s LA” on social media, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about city dwellers managing the perks of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your friend being accused of being a drug-addled stealer, and potentially becoming a unreliable pariah). It would be tempting to make a show about online fame that was overly glamorous—or, worse, one that punched down at those depicted. The series does neither, resulting in a depiction of affluent millennial life that’s frank 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 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
