Rachel Sennott enters the video call and immediately starts an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, appearing genuinely regretful. She is only a couple of minutes behind, she needs 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!” Luckily, during an interview, that’s exactly what you want to experience. Moreover, it’s pretty predictable. Anyone who have seen her fearlessly openly gay and outspoken film titled Bottoms—which Sennott penned with the director and appeared in together with her friend The Bear’s standout—can already know that she has much to say, whether on identity, intimacy, or the merits of starting a youth combat group. And, after watching her new multi-episode show I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries even more perspectives regarding the challenges of Gen Z life (At 30, she is a relatable figure of the gang, straddling eras adept for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and Sennott is enthusiastic, referencing it together with the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as guides for I Love LA, which tracks the travails of a social media star Tallulah and close companion who is also aspiring representative Maia. Perhaps, the biggest presence on the moodboard belonged to the popular sitcom, the HBO sitcom depicting an emerging celebrity succeeding in a corrupt Hollywood (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She discovered it during the pandemic, became “hooked”, and decided to put her own twist 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 says. The idea for the series emerged—in part—from personal, originally rocky, transition to Tinseltown and from the saturn return, a popular event for astrology heads. That period marked an era that saw her understand some big truths, professionally and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Starting Out
Brought up in Connecticut, the star began developing and showcasing comedy while enrolled in acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott decided to act independently, performing at live shows with her friend and sharing uproarious (and decidedly) bizarre online content online. One, titled Baby Cult, followed several females intensely drawn to pregnancy; a different one envisioned being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being stuck in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Emma through campus film circles and ended up appearing in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a funeral gathering with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her journey, she explains, has been people her own age supporting her, as opposed to traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, stating with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who had doubts about Sennott previously will certainly be kicking themselves now. In what she labels a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she appears to achieved her dream vehicle. A few years back she posted a video titled “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she parodied film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a comedy about LA residents balancing benefits of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your client being labeled as being a substance-abusing criminal, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). Some could tempting to make a series about online fame that was extremely idealized—or, worse, one that mocked at its subjects. I Love LA does neither, creating a representation of privileged young adult existence that’s candid about the chaos and the appeal.
Empathetic Approach
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
