Rachel Sennott appears on the digital interview and right away begins an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, sounding really apologetic. She is only slightly behind, she feels compelled to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, during an interview, that’s just what one hopes to experience. Besides, it’s pretty unsurprising. Viewers who have seen the boldly openly gay and brash movie titled Bottoms—that she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and appeared in together with her friend The Bear’s standout—would already know that she holds much to discuss, be it on gender, relationships, or the pros of starting a youth brawl society. And, after watching her recent seasonal show I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star holds even more perspectives about the challenges of modern youth (At 30, she is a bridge to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial skilled for straddling different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and the actress readily acknowledges enthusiastic, citing the show in addition to the HBO hit, Insecure and Atlanta as inspirations for I Love LA, which tracks the journey of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and fledgling agent Sennott’s character. Notably, the biggest presence on the moodboard belonged to the HBO series, that program focusing on a rising Hollywood star succeeding in a gritty entertainment industry (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She began viewing it throughout the pandemic, became “captivated”, and decided to put her own twist on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The inspiration for the series came—partly—from her own, initially difficult, transition to Los Angeles and from the saturn return, a much-talked-about phenomenon for astrology heads. It was a phase that involved her grasp major life lessons, work-wise and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Humble Origins
Raised in Connecticut, the star commenced writing and performing stand-up while enrolled in performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, performing at amateur nights with Ayo and uploading hysterical (and very) weird comedy videos digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed characters obsessively obsessed with having babies; a different one imagined being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being stuck in a horror film. By chance, she connected with Seligman through the university’s film scene and ended up starring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a religious event with hints of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her career, she notes, has been people her own age supporting her, rather than traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, continuing with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who were skeptical regarding Sennott previously will certainly be kicking themselves currently. In what she calls a “wild, full-circle” development, she has achieved her dream vehicle. Previously she shared content named “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a show about city dwellers juggling advantages of digital stardom (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your client being accused of being a intoxicated stealer, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). It would be simple to make a series about digital influence that was horribly idealized—or, worse, one that punched down at those depicted. The series steers clear of each, resulting in a representation of advantaged millennial existence that’s candid about the grot and the appeal.
Empathetic Approach
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
