Rachel Sennott appears on the video call and immediately begins an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, appearing really remorseful. Although she's only slightly delayed, she feels compelled 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!” Thankfully, during an interview, this is precisely what is ideal to encounter. Besides, it’s fairly unsurprising. Viewers who know the fearlessly queer and outspoken project titled Bottoms—that she collaborated on with the director and featured in together with her friend The Bear’s standout—will already know that she possesses plenty to discuss, be it about gender, relationships, or the appeal of creating a high-school fight club. Furthermore, after watching the latest eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds further perspectives on the darker side of modern youth (As a millennial, she represents an honorary member of the gang, on the cusp adept for straddling both generations).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and the actress is a fan, naming the show alongside Sex and the City, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for I Love LA, which details the journey of a social media star Tallulah and her friend and fledgling representative portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the largest presence on creative vision went to the popular sitcom, that program about an emerging Hollywood star succeeding in an often-seedy Hollywood (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott started watching it amid lockdown, became “captivated”, and chose to put her own twist 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 explains. The idea for the series emerged—to some extent—from her own, at first fractious, relocation to Los Angeles and from her saturn return, a much-talked-about event for followers. That period marked an era that saw her grasp some big life lessons, 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 resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in the East Coast, Sennott commenced writing and performing stand-up while pursuing theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “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. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at amateur nights with Ayo and uploading hilarious (and decidedly) bizarre online content on the internet. One, Baby Cult, centered on characters obsessively obsessed with pregnancy; a different one envisioned being employed at the brand Hollister as akin to being trapped in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she met Emma through the university’s film scene and ended up starring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a Jewish wake with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her path, she explains, has been contemporaries supporting her, rather than established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, continuing with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Those who had doubts about her earlier will surely be feeling foolish currently. Through she describes as a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she has created the perfect project. Previously she uploaded content named on LA life on social media, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a show about Angelenos balancing benefits of digital stardom (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your associate being suspected of being a intoxicated thief, and perhaps becoming a unreliable outcast). Some could easy to make a program about digital influence that was extremely idealized—or, worse, one that belittled at its subjects. The series steers clear of each, making for a representation of affluent twentysomething living that’s candid about the grot and the shine.
Balanced Perspective
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
