Rachel Sennott enters the digital interview and at once launches into an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, sounding truly apologetic. Although she's only a couple of minutes behind, she wants to clarify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, during an interview, that’s just what you want to encounter. Besides, it’s pretty unsurprising. Anyone who have seen the fearlessly LGBTQ+ and outspoken movie Bottoms—which Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and featured in together with close companion Ayo Edebiri—can understand that she has a lot to discuss, ranging from on roles, relationships, or the pros of starting a high-school brawl society. And, once you finish her new multi-episode program titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she holds further thoughts on the challenges of Gen Z life (As a millennial, she is an honorary member of the gang, a tale-end millennial skilled for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
Parallels to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and the actress admits to being enthusiastic, citing it together with the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as inspirations for the project, which follows the struggles of a social media star Tallulah and close companion and fledgling representative Maia. Perhaps, the biggest spot on concept was reserved for Entourage, that show depicting a rising Hollywood star making his way in a gritty LA scene (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it during COVID-19, became “captivated”, 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 idea for this project emerged—to some extent—from her own, at first rocky, move to Los Angeles and from her astrological phase, a popular occurrence for astrology heads. It was a phase that involved her grasp some big insights, work-wise and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Starting Out
Brought up in Connecticut, the star started writing and performing humor while pursuing acting at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, appearing at open mics with her friend and uploading hysterical (and decidedly) unconventional skits digitally. One, Baby Cult, centered on a group of women obsessively drawn to having babies; a different one portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being stuck in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Seligman through the university’s film scene and ended up starring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a religious event with shades of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her journey, she explains, has been people her own age offering opportunities, rather than established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she repeats, continuing amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who questioned about her previously will surely be feeling foolish now. In what she labels a “incredibly circular” story, she has created her dream vehicle. In 2019 she uploaded content named “it’s LA” on social media, in which she mocked movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a comedy about LA residents balancing benefits of online celebrity (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being labeled as being a intoxicated stealer, and perhaps becoming a risky persona non grata). One might tempting to produce a series about online fame that was overly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at the characters. I Love LA avoids both, creating a portrait of advantaged millennial existence that’s candid about the grot and the shine.
Balanced Perspective
“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
