Rachel Sennott enters the video call and at once launches into an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, appearing truly regretful. Despite being only a couple of minutes late, she feels compelled 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, in this context, that’s exactly what you want to hear. Besides, it’s quite expected. Anyone who know her unapologetically LGBTQ+ and brash movie Bottoms—that Sennott penned with the director and featured in together with close companion Ayo Edebiri—can be aware that she possesses plenty to say, be it about gender, sex, or the merits of forming a youth combat group. And, after watching her recent eight-part program I Love LA, it is clear that she holds even more thoughts about the challenges of modern youth (Now in her thirties, she serves as a relatable figure for this generation, on the cusp with a knack for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and the actress is an admirer, citing it together with Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as guides for the project, which details the travails of a social media star Tallulah and ally who is also aspiring representative Sennott’s character. However, the largest influence on concept went to the popular sitcom, the HBO sitcom about a rising Hollywood star succeeding in a corrupt Hollywood (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott started watching it amid COVID-19, became “hooked”, and chose 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 says. The concept for I Love LA originated—to some extent—from personal, initially fractious, move to Tinseltown and from the astrological phase, a popular event for astrology heads. It was a phase that saw her grasp some big life lessons, professionally and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “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
Growing up in New England, the star commenced writing and performing stand-up while pursuing performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
She took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at open mics with Edebiri and sharing hilarious (and distinctly) unconventional skits online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted a group of women intensely drawn to motherhood; a different one portrayed being employed at the brand Hollister as similar to being trapped in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Seligman through the university’s film scene and eventually featuring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her path, she says, has been people her own age offering opportunities, as opposed to the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, adding with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Manifesting Dreams
Individuals who questioned about Sennott then will certainly be kicking themselves now. In what she calls a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she has manifested the perfect project. Previously she uploaded a video titled “it’s LA” on social media, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a series about LA residents juggling advantages of online celebrity (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being accused of being a drug-addled thief, and potentially becoming a unreliable persona non grata). One might simple to create a series about online fame that was extremely aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at those depicted. I Love LA does neither, making for a depiction of advantaged twentysomething life that’s frank about the grot and the shine.
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
