Rachel Sennott joins the digital interview and at once begins an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, seeming genuinely regretful. Although she's only a bit late, she wants to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, for a writer, this is exactly what you want to hear. Additionally, it’s fairly expected. Anyone familiar with the unapologetically openly gay and outspoken project Bottoms—which she co-wrote with Emma Seligman and starred in together with close companion The Bear’s standout—will already know that she has much to say, whether about gender, relationships, or the pros of starting a youth combat group. And, after watching her latest multi-episode show I Love LA, it is clear that she has further perspectives on the struggles of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, Sennott is an honorary member for this generation, straddling eras adept for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and the actress is an admirer, naming the show in addition to the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as influences for her series, which details the journey of a social media star Tallulah and close companion and new representative portrayed by Sennott. However, the most significant influence on concept went to the HBO series, that HBO sitcom focusing on an emerging celebrity navigating in an often-seedy entertainment industry (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She began viewing it amid COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and resolved to put her own twist 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 says. The inspiration for I Love LA originated—to some extent—from personal, at first fractious, transition to Los Angeles and from the astrological phase, a popular phenomenon for followers. This represented a time that involved her understand some big insights, work-wise and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “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
Raised in Connecticut, Sennott started writing and performing 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 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. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, performing at live shows with Edebiri and posting uproarious (and distinctly) unconventional skits online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on characters obsessively obsessed with motherhood; another envisioned working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being stuck in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she met Seligman through the university’s film scene and ultimately appearing in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the intense thriller. The big theme of her journey, she says, has been people her own age supporting her, instead of the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, continuing humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who had doubts regarding Sennott previously will certainly be kicking themselves currently. Through she labels a “astonishingly complete” development, she seems to have created her dream vehicle. A few years back she uploaded content named on LA life on social media, in which she parodied film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a series about LA residents managing the perks of internet fame (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your associate being suspected of being a drug-addled thief, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). It would be easy to create a show about online fame that was overly idealized—or, more problematic, one that belittled at those depicted. The series does neither, resulting in a depiction of advantaged young adult life that’s honest about the mess and the appeal.
Empathetic Approach
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” 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
