Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and right away starts an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, seeming genuinely regretful. Despite being only a couple of minutes behind, she wants to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, during an interview, that’s just what one hopes to hear. Besides, it’s fairly predictable. Those familiar with her boldly openly gay and brash movie Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with the director and starred in together with close companion The Bear’s standout—can be aware that Sennott has a lot to say, be it about identity, relationships, or the merits of forming a teen brawl society. Plus, by the end the recent eight-part show I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star holds additional thoughts about the challenges of young adulthood (At 30, Sennott serves as a bridge to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial with a knack for bridging both generations).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and Sennott readily acknowledges an admirer, citing it in addition to Sex and the City, Insecure and Atlanta as influences for I Love LA, which tracks the struggles of an influencer Tallulah and close companion who is also fledgling talent manager Maia. Perhaps, the largest spot on concept went to the HBO series, that program focusing on a rising Hollywood star making his way in a corrupt LA scene (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it during the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and chose to create a new version 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 notes. The concept for this project came—partly—from personal, originally difficult, transition to Tinseltown and from the astrological phase, a popular phenomenon for astrology heads. It was a time that involved her grasp major truths, work-wise and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Humble Origins
Growing up in the East Coast, the star commenced developing and showcasing stand-up while enrolled in performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She took matters into her own hands, performing at live shows with Edebiri and sharing uproarious (and distinctly) bizarre comedy videos online. One, Baby Cult, centered on characters obsessively obsessed with pregnancy; another envisioned working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being caught in a scary movie. Interestingly, she connected with Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ultimately featuring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the intense thriller. The central motif of her career, she notes, has been people her own age giving her a shot, rather than established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, stating with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who were skeptical about Sennott then will likely be regretting it now. Through she labels a “astonishingly complete” story, she seems to have created the perfect project. A few years back she posted a clip named on LA life on the internet, in which she mocked film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a series about city dwellers managing advantages of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being accused of being a intoxicated criminal, and possibly becoming a risky pariah). Some could tempting to make a program about internet celebrity that was extremely idealized—or, worse, one that punched down at the characters. The series does neither, making for a depiction of privileged twentysomething existence that’s frank about the chaos and the appeal.
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
