Rachel Sennott appears on the online meeting and right away starts an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, sounding truly remorseful. She is only a bit delayed, she wants to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, in this context, that’s just what one hopes to hear. Besides, it’s fairly unsurprising. Viewers who have seen the fearlessly queer and unapologetically crass film Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and featured in together with close companion the talented actress—would understand that Sennott holds a lot to share, ranging from about identity, relationships, or the merits of starting a high-school brawl society. And, once you finish the new eight-part program I Love LA, it is clear that she has additional thoughts about the darker side of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, she is an honorary member for this generation, on the cusp adept for connecting different age groups).
Influences and Artistic Direction
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and Sennott readily acknowledges enthusiastic, referencing it alongside the HBO hit, Insecure and Atlanta as guides for the project, which follows the travails of an influencer Tallulah and ally and new agent portrayed by Sennott. However, the biggest spot on creative vision belonged to the popular sitcom, the show about a rising Hollywood star making his way in a gritty entertainment industry (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott discovered it amid the pandemic, became “captivated”, and chose to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she notes. The inspiration for this project emerged—to some extent—from firsthand, originally difficult, move to Tinseltown and from her saturn return, a much-talked-about phenomenon for followers. This represented a time that saw her understand major life lessons, in her career and individually. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she admits. “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
Raised in New England, the star commenced developing and showcasing comedy while pursuing performance at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at amateur nights with Ayo and sharing hilarious (and very) unconventional comedy videos digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, followed characters fetishistically obsessed with pregnancy; a different one imagined working at a trendy retail outlet as like being stuck in a scary movie. Interestingly, she met Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually featuring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a religious event with echoes of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her career, she explains, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, instead of the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, stating humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Rising Success
Anyone who were skeptical about Sennott earlier will surely be kicking themselves now. Through she describes as a “incredibly circular” development, she has manifested the perfect project. Previously she uploaded a video titled about Los Angeles online, in which she parodied film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a show about Angelenos balancing benefits of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your client being accused of being a substance-abusing thief, and possibly becoming a risky outcast). One might easy to make a series about online fame that was overly aspirational—or, worse, one that mocked at its subjects. This show does neither, creating a portrait of affluent millennial existence that’s candid about the chaos and the shine.
Empathetic Approach
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” she says. “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
