Rachel Sennott appears on the video call and right away begins an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, sounding really regretful. She is only a bit behind, she needs to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, during an interview, that’s just what is ideal to experience. Moreover, it’s fairly unsurprising. Viewers familiar with the unapologetically queer and outspoken movie Bottoms—that Sennott penned with her creative partner and appeared in alongside her friend the talented actress—can already know that she possesses a lot to say, whether about identity, sex, or the pros of starting a teen brawl society. And, after watching her recent eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries even more thoughts on the struggles of modern youth (As a millennial, she serves as an honorary member to younger audiences, straddling eras with a knack for bridging different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and the actress is enthusiastic, citing the show alongside the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as influences for I Love LA, which details the journey of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and fledgling representative portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the biggest influence on concept was reserved for the HBO series, the HBO sitcom about a rising celebrity navigating in a corrupt entertainment industry (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She discovered it amid COVID-19, became “captivated”, and resolved to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The inspiration for this project came—in part—from firsthand, at first rocky, transition to LA and from her saturn return, a popular occurrence for enthusiasts. This represented a phase that included her understand some big insights, work-wise and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Humble Origins
Brought up in New England, Sennott began creating and acting comedy while pursuing acting at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She seized control, performing at open mics with Ayo and sharing hilarious (and very) bizarre comedy videos online. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted a group of women intensely obsessed with motherhood; a different one portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as like being stuck in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and ended up featuring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a Jewish wake with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her career, she explains, has been people her own age giving her a shot, rather than established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she repeats, adding with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Manifesting Dreams
Individuals who questioned about her earlier will certainly be kicking themselves currently. Through she calls a “astonishingly complete” development, she seems to have created an ideal role. A few years back she posted a clip titled “it’s LA” on social media, in which she mocked movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about LA residents juggling advantages of online celebrity (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being suspected of being a drug-addled criminal, and possibly becoming a unreliable pariah). It would be easy to produce a program about internet celebrity that was overly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that mocked at its subjects. This show does neither, making for a depiction of affluent young adult existence that’s frank about the chaos and the glamour.
Balanced Perspective
“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
