Rachel Sennott joins the digital interview and right away begins an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, seeming truly remorseful. Although she's only slightly delayed, she wants to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, for a writer, that’s exactly what one hopes to experience. Besides, it’s fairly expected. Those familiar with her boldly queer and outspoken film titled Bottoms—that she penned with the director and starred in together with her friend Ayo Edebiri—can understand that she possesses a lot to share, ranging from about gender, intimacy, or the merits of forming a youth brawl society. And, after watching her recent eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star has additional thoughts on the challenges of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott serves as an honorary member for this generation, a tale-end millennial skilled for straddling both generations).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and the actress admits to being a fan, referencing it in addition to Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as influences for I Love LA, which details the travails of an influencer Tallulah and her friend and fledgling agent portrayed by Sennott. However, the most significant presence on concept went to the HBO series, that HBO sitcom about an emerging A-list actor making his way in a corrupt Hollywood (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott began viewing it throughout COVID-19, became “captivated”, and decided to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she notes. The concept for the series came—in part—from her own, at first fractious, move to LA and from the astrological phase, a frequently discussed phenomenon for enthusiasts. It was an era that saw her learn major life lessons, professionally and personally. “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. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Starting Out
Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott began developing and showcasing humor while studying acting at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” 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.”
Sennott seized control, taking the stage at open mics with her friend and uploading uproarious (and distinctly) unconventional comedy videos online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, followed several females fetishistically obsessed with having babies; a different one imagined being employed at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being stuck in a thriller. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through campus film circles and ultimately appearing in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a religious event with echoes of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her career, she explains, has been peers giving her a shot, rather than the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, stating amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who questioned about Sennott previously will surely be regretting it currently. In what she calls a “wild, full-circle” development, she appears to created an ideal role. In 2019 she shared a video named about Los Angeles on social media, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a show about city dwellers balancing benefits of online celebrity (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your client being labeled as being a drug-addled criminal, and perhaps becoming a unreliable outcast). One might tempting to make a program about digital influence that was horribly glamorous—or, worse, one that punched down at the characters. I Love LA steers clear of each, making for a portrait of affluent millennial existence that’s frank about the grot and the appeal.
Empathetic Approach
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” she observes. “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
