Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and immediately launches into an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, seeming really regretful. Although she's only a bit late, she feels compelled to justify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, in this context, that’s precisely what one hopes to experience. Moreover, it’s fairly unsurprising. Those who know the boldly openly gay and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—which she co-wrote with Emma Seligman and starred in together with close companion The Bear’s standout—can understand that Sennott has much to discuss, whether about roles, relationships, or the appeal of creating a youth combat group. Furthermore, once you finish her new eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she carries additional insights regarding the struggles of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, she is a bridge for this generation, on the cusp with a knack for bridging different age groups).
Influences and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress admits to being enthusiastic, referencing it alongside the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as inspirations for the project, which follows the journey of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also new agent Sennott’s character. Notably, the largest presence on creative vision was reserved for the HBO series, that program focusing on an up-and-coming celebrity navigating in an often-seedy LA scene (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott began viewing it amid the pandemic, became “hooked”, and resolved to put her own twist on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she notes. The inspiration for the series emerged—to some extent—from personal, at first difficult, transition to LA and from her saturn return, a frequently discussed occurrence for enthusiasts. It was a time that saw her understand significant insights, in her career and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in New England, Sennott began developing and showcasing humor while enrolled in performance at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott decided to act independently, appearing at amateur nights with Ayo and posting uproarious (and very) unconventional skits online. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women fetishistically fixated on having babies; a different one imagined working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being caught in a horror film. By chance, she encountered Seligman through the university’s film scene and ended up appearing in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a funeral gathering with hints of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her career, she notes, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, as opposed to established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, stating amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Rising Success
Individuals who had doubts about her earlier will surely be feeling foolish now. In what she labels a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she has created the perfect project. In 2019 she uploaded content titled on LA life on the internet, in which she mocked movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a comedy about LA residents juggling advantages of digital stardom (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your client being accused of being a drug-addled thief, and potentially becoming a unreliable outcast). Some could simple to produce a show about online fame that was extremely idealized—or, more problematic, one that belittled at the characters. I Love LA does neither, making for a representation of privileged millennial life that’s frank about the chaos and the shine.
Balanced Perspective
“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
