Rachel Sennott joins the online meeting and immediately begins an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, appearing truly regretful. Despite being only slightly delayed, she feels compelled to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, during an interview, this is exactly what is ideal to encounter. Additionally, it’s pretty predictable. Anyone who know her boldly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass project titled Bottoms—which she penned with the director and appeared in together with her friend Ayo Edebiri—will already know that Sennott possesses much to share, whether on identity, relationships, or the appeal of forming a teen brawl society. And, once you finish her latest seasonal show titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds even more insights on the struggles of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott is an honorary member for this generation, a tale-end millennial with a knack for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott readily acknowledges a fan, naming it together with Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as influences for I Love LA, which follows the struggles of an influencer Tallulah and her friend and new representative portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the largest presence on creative vision went to the popular sitcom, that HBO sitcom depicting an emerging celebrity succeeding in a gritty Hollywood (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott discovered it during lockdown, became “obsessed”, and chose to create a new version 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 idea for this project originated—in part—from personal, at first fractious, move to LA and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about event for enthusiasts. It was a time that saw her learn some big insights, professionally and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Humble Origins
Brought up in New England, the star commenced developing and showcasing comedy while studying performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott seized control, appearing at open mics with her friend and sharing hilarious (and very) bizarre online content digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, followed several females obsessively fixated on motherhood; a different one envisioned working at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being stuck in a horror film. By chance, she connected with Seligman through the university’s film scene and ended up featuring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her journey, she notes, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, instead of the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, adding amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who were skeptical regarding Sennott then will certainly be feeling foolish today. In what she calls a “wild, full-circle” development, she seems to have manifested her dream vehicle. A few years back she uploaded a clip called about Los Angeles online, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a series about LA residents balancing the perks of online celebrity (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being accused of being a substance-abusing criminal, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). Some could simple to create a show about digital influence that was overly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that mocked at those depicted. This show avoids both, creating a portrait of affluent young adult existence that’s candid about the chaos and the shine.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
