Rachel Sennott appears on the video call and right away begins an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, appearing really remorseful. Although she's only a bit behind, she feels compelled to clarify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, for a writer, that’s exactly what is ideal to experience. Besides, it’s fairly predictable. Those familiar with the boldly openly gay and brash project Bottoms—which she collaborated on with her creative partner and featured in with close companion the talented actress—can be aware that Sennott has plenty to say, ranging from about gender, intimacy, or the merits of forming a youth brawl society. Plus, by the end her new multi-episode show titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries additional thoughts on the darker side of Gen Z life (As a millennial, Sennott represents a relatable figure to younger audiences, straddling eras adept for connecting both generations).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott is enthusiastic, referencing the show together with the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as influences for the project, which follows the travails of online personality Tallulah and close companion who is also aspiring agent Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the most significant influence on creative vision went to Entourage, that program about an emerging Hollywood star making his way in a gritty entertainment industry (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She began viewing it amid the pandemic, became “hooked”, and resolved to add a fresh perspective 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 inspiration for this project emerged—partly—from her own, at first difficult, relocation to Los Angeles and from her astrological phase, a popular phenomenon for enthusiasts. That period marked an era that included her learn major truths, in her career and personally. “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 …”
Early Beginnings
Raised in Connecticut, the star started writing and performing humor while studying performance at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” 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 decided to act independently, appearing at amateur nights with Edebiri and sharing hysterical (and decidedly) bizarre online content online. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed characters fetishistically drawn to motherhood; another imagined working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being caught in a scary movie. By chance, she encountered Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ended up featuring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a religious event with shades of the intense thriller. The big theme of her path, she says, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, as opposed to established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, continuing humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who had doubts about her then will certainly be regretting it now. Through she labels a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she has manifested the perfect project. In 2019 she uploaded a video called about Los Angeles online, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a show about LA residents managing benefits of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being suspected of being a substance-abusing criminal, and perhaps becoming a risky outcast). Some could tempting to produce a show about digital influence that was horribly aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at the characters. I Love LA steers clear of each, creating a depiction of affluent young adult life that’s honest 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 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
