Rachel Sennott enters the digital interview and immediately launches into an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, seeming really remorseful. Although she's only a couple of minutes delayed, she feels compelled to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, during an interview, that’s exactly what one hopes to encounter. Moreover, it’s fairly unsurprising. Those who know her fearlessly openly gay and brash film titled Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with Emma Seligman and starred in together with collaborator the talented actress—will understand that she holds plenty to share, whether about gender, relationships, or the merits of forming a teen fight club. Plus, once you finish her latest seasonal program titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star holds additional insights about the darker side of modern youth (As a millennial, she is an honorary member to younger audiences, on the cusp skilled for bridging different age groups).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and the actress admits to being enthusiastic, citing the show in addition to the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as guides for the project, which follows the travails of an influencer Tallulah and ally who is also aspiring representative Maia. However, the biggest presence on creative vision was reserved for the HBO series, that show about an emerging celebrity making his way in a gritty entertainment industry (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott began viewing it amid the pandemic, became “hooked”, and decided to add a fresh perspective on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she says. The inspiration for I Love LA emerged—partly—from firsthand, originally fractious, move to Tinseltown and from her saturn return, a frequently discussed phenomenon for followers. It was a phase that involved her learn significant life lessons, professionally and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott began developing and showcasing humor 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. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
She took matters into her own hands, appearing at open mics with Edebiri and uploading hilarious (and distinctly) unconventional skits digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, followed several females intensely obsessed with pregnancy; a different one envisioned being employed at the brand Hollister as akin to being caught in a horror film. Interestingly, she met Seligman through campus film circles and ultimately starring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a religious event with shades of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her career, she says, has been contemporaries supporting her, rather than traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, continuing with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who questioned about her previously will surely be kicking themselves now. Through she labels a “wild, full-circle” story, she seems to have achieved her dream vehicle. A few years back she uploaded a clip titled about Los Angeles online, in which she mocked film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a series about Angelenos managing benefits of digital stardom (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being accused of being a drug-addled stealer, and perhaps becoming a unreliable pariah). One might tempting to produce a series about internet celebrity that was extremely glamorous—or, worse, one that punched down at the characters. This show steers clear of each, making for a representation of privileged young adult living that’s candid about the chaos 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
