Rachel Sennott appears on the digital interview and at once launches into an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, appearing truly regretful. She is only a bit delayed, she feels compelled to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, in this context, that’s just what you want to encounter. Moreover, it’s pretty unsurprising. Anyone who know the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and brash movie Bottoms—which Sennott penned with the director and starred in together with collaborator the talented actress—will understand that Sennott has a lot to discuss, be it about gender, intimacy, or the merits of creating a teen combat group. And, once you finish her new multi-episode program titled I Love LA, viewers realize that the star carries further thoughts regarding the darker side of modern youth (At 30, Sennott serves as an honorary member for this generation, on the cusp skilled for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott admits to being an admirer, naming it together with Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as inspirations for the project, which tracks the journey of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and new talent manager Sennott’s character. However, the biggest influence on concept was reserved for the popular sitcom, that program depicting an emerging A-list actor making his way in a corrupt LA scene (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott began viewing it throughout lockdown, became “captivated”, and chose to add a fresh perspective on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The concept for I Love LA came—to some extent—from her own, originally fractious, transition to Tinseltown and from the cosmic event, a much-talked-about phenomenon for astrology heads. That period marked a time that included her learn significant insights, work-wise and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “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 …”
Starting Out
Growing up in New England, Sennott started creating and acting humor 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 says. “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. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She took matters into her own hands, appearing at amateur nights with her friend and uploading hilarious (and distinctly) bizarre online content on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted a group of women fetishistically fixated on having babies; a different one envisioned working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being stuck in a horror film. By chance, she connected with Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ended up appearing in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her path, she says, has been people her own age giving her a shot, instead of the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, continuing amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who were skeptical about Sennott then will likely be regretting it now. Through she describes as a “incredibly circular” story, she has achieved an ideal role. In 2019 she shared a clip named on LA life on the internet, in which she parodied film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a comedy about city dwellers managing advantages of digital stardom (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your client being accused of being a drug-addled stealer, and potentially becoming a risky pariah). Some could tempting to make a program about online fame that was overly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that mocked at the characters. This show does neither, resulting in a depiction of affluent twentysomething living that’s honest about the chaos and the appeal.
Nuanced Portrayal
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” 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
