Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and right away launches into an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, appearing genuinely remorseful. Although she's only a couple of minutes late, she needs to explain. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, during an interview, that’s exactly what one hopes to hear. Additionally, it’s quite predictable. Those familiar with the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and outspoken movie Bottoms—which she penned with Emma Seligman and appeared in with close companion the talented actress—would already know that she possesses much to say, whether about gender, relationships, or the merits of forming a youth combat group. And, by the end her recent seasonal HBO series titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she holds even more insights on the darker side of young adulthood (As a millennial, Sennott serves as an honorary member of the gang, a tale-end millennial skilled for straddling different age groups).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and the actress is an admirer, citing it in addition to the classic series, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for the project, which tracks the journey of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion and fledgling talent manager Sennott’s character. Notably, the biggest influence on creative vision was reserved for the HBO series, that program about an emerging celebrity navigating in a gritty Hollywood (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She began viewing it during lockdown, became “hooked”, 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 says. The concept for this project originated—in part—from her own, at first rocky, move to Tinseltown and from the cosmic event, a popular phenomenon for followers. That period marked a phase that included her learn significant insights, work-wise and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Humble Origins
Raised in New England, the star started creating and acting stand-up while enrolled in performance at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “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. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott seized control, performing at amateur nights with Edebiri and sharing hilarious (and distinctly) unconventional skits online. One, titled Baby Cult, followed characters intensely fixated on motherhood; another portrayed working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being caught in a scary movie. Interestingly, she met Emma through campus film circles and ended up appearing in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a funeral gathering with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her path, she notes, has been people her own age supporting her, rather than the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, continuing with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Those who were skeptical regarding Sennott previously will surely be kicking themselves now. Through she labels a “incredibly circular” story, she appears to achieved an ideal role. Previously she uploaded a video named on LA life on social media, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about LA residents juggling the perks of online celebrity (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your associate being labeled as being a intoxicated stealer, and possibly becoming a unreliable outcast). Some could simple to produce a series about digital influence that was extremely aspirational—or, more problematic, one that punched down at the characters. I Love LA does neither, creating a representation of affluent young adult existence that’s candid about the mess and the glamour.
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 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
