Rachel Sennott enters the digital interview and immediately begins an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, seeming genuinely remorseful. Although she's only a bit late, she feels compelled to explain. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, during an interview, that’s exactly what is ideal to encounter. Moreover, it’s pretty unsurprising. Those familiar with her fearlessly openly gay and brash project Bottoms—that she penned with her creative partner and appeared in together with her friend The Bear’s standout—would understand that she holds much to share, whether on gender, relationships, or the pros of starting a high-school fight club. Furthermore, by the end the new eight-part program titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she holds even more perspectives on the struggles of modern youth (At 30, Sennott represents a bridge of the gang, on the cusp with a knack for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and Sennott readily acknowledges enthusiastic, naming the show alongside the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as guides for the project, which details the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also new representative Sennott’s character. However, the biggest influence on creative vision was reserved for the HBO series, that program focusing on an up-and-coming A-list actor succeeding in an often-seedy Hollywood (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it amid the pandemic, became “captivated”, and decided to create a new version on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she says. The idea for the series emerged—partly—from personal, initially rocky, move to LA and from her saturn return, a popular event for enthusiasts. This represented a phase that involved her grasp major insights, work-wise and individually. “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
Raised in New England, the star started writing and performing comedy while enrolled in performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “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?”
Sennott seized control, performing at open mics with Ayo and posting uproarious (and very) weird skits online. One, titled Baby Cult, followed several females obsessively drawn to pregnancy; another envisioned being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being trapped in a scary movie. By chance, she encountered Seligman through campus film circles and ultimately appearing in her initial project, Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a religious event with echoes of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her career, she says, has been people her own age supporting her, rather than traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she confirms, stating with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who questioned regarding Sennott previously will surely be kicking themselves now. Through she calls a “incredibly circular” development, she appears to achieved her dream vehicle. Previously she shared a video called “it’s LA” on social media, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a series about LA residents managing the perks of digital stardom (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being suspected of being a substance-abusing thief, and possibly becoming a unreliable pariah). It would be easy to produce a program about online fame that was extremely glamorous—or, worse, one that mocked at the characters. I Love LA steers clear of each, making for a representation of privileged millennial living that’s frank about the grot and the shine.
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
