Rachel Sennott joins the online meeting and at once launches into an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, seeming really regretful. Despite being only slightly behind, she needs to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, for a writer, this is exactly what is ideal to experience. Moreover, it’s quite predictable. Anyone who know her boldly queer and brash project Bottoms—that she co-wrote with Emma Seligman and starred in together with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—can understand that she holds a lot to discuss, whether on roles, sex, or the merits of forming a teen fight club. Furthermore, after watching her recent multi-episode program titled I Love LA, viewers realize that the star has even more insights regarding the darker side of modern youth (Now in her thirties, Sennott is a bridge of the gang, on the cusp skilled for straddling different age groups).
Influences and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and the actress readily acknowledges an admirer, referencing it alongside the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as influences for I Love LA, which details the travails of an influencer Tallulah and close companion and new agent Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the biggest influence on the moodboard was reserved for Entourage, that program depicting an up-and-coming Hollywood star making his way in an often-seedy Hollywood (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott started watching it amid lockdown, became “captivated”, and resolved 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 explains. The idea for I Love LA came—in part—from firsthand, initially difficult, relocation to LA and from her saturn return, a popular phenomenon for enthusiasts. That period marked a time that included her learn major life lessons, work-wise and individually. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she says. “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 the East Coast, Sennott started creating and acting stand-up while studying acting at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she states. “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, taking the stage at amateur nights with Ayo and uploading uproarious (and decidedly) weird skits online. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on several females intensely drawn to having babies; another portrayed being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being stuck in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Seligman through NYU’s movie community and eventually featuring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a funeral gathering with shades of the intense thriller. The big theme of her career, she explains, has been contemporaries supporting her, as opposed to traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, adding humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Anyone who had doubts about her earlier will certainly be kicking themselves today. As part of she describes as a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she has created an ideal role. Previously she uploaded a clip called on LA life online, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a show about LA residents managing the perks of internet fame (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being labeled as being a drug-addled criminal, and possibly becoming a unreliable persona non grata). One might simple to make a show about online fame that was extremely idealized—or, worse, one that mocked at its subjects. I Love LA avoids both, creating a portrait of affluent young adult existence that’s candid about the grot and the shine.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
