Rachel Sennott appears on the video call and at once begins an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, appearing genuinely regretful. Despite being only slightly behind, she feels compelled to explain. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s precisely what you want to hear. Moreover, it’s fairly predictable. Viewers who know her boldly LGBTQ+ and brash film titled Bottoms—which she penned with the director and featured in alongside close companion The Bear’s standout—will understand that she possesses plenty to say, ranging from on identity, sex, or the merits of creating a teen fight club. Furthermore, once you finish her recent multi-episode HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries even more insights about the struggles of modern youth (As a millennial, Sennott represents a bridge for this generation, on the cusp with a knack for bridging different age groups).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
Parallels to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and Sennott readily acknowledges enthusiastic, referencing the show alongside the classic series, Insecure and Atlanta as guides for I Love LA, which tracks the travails of a social media star Tallulah and close companion who is also fledgling talent manager Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the largest spot on creative vision went to the HBO series, that program depicting an up-and-coming A-list actor navigating in an often-seedy LA scene (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She started watching it during the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and resolved 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 explains. The idea for the series came—to some extent—from firsthand, originally difficult, move to Los Angeles and from her cosmic event, a much-talked-about phenomenon for astrology heads. This represented a phase that involved her learn some big insights, 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 …”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in New England, the star began writing and performing stand-up while pursuing acting at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott decided to act independently, performing at amateur nights with Edebiri and uploading hilarious (and decidedly) unconventional comedy videos digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted a group of women intensely fixated on pregnancy; another portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being stuck in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Seligman through the university’s film scene and ultimately starring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a religious event with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her career, she explains, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, as opposed to traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she repeats, adding amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Anyone who were skeptical about her previously will likely be feeling foolish currently. As part of she describes as a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she has manifested her dream vehicle. A few years back she shared a clip called “it’s LA” online, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a series about city dwellers managing benefits of digital stardom (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being labeled as being a drug-addled criminal, and possibly becoming a unreliable pariah). It would be tempting to produce a show about online fame that was overly idealized—or, worse, one that mocked at its subjects. This show avoids both, resulting in a representation of privileged twentysomething living that’s honest about the grot and the appeal.
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
