Rachel Sennott joins the video call and right away starts an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, sounding truly remorseful. Despite being only a couple of minutes delayed, she needs to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, in this context, that’s exactly what is ideal to encounter. Additionally, it’s pretty expected. Viewers familiar with her boldly queer and brash film Bottoms—which she collaborated on with the director and starred in alongside collaborator Ayo Edebiri—can understand that Sennott possesses much to say, ranging from about gender, sex, or the pros of starting a high-school combat group. Plus, after watching her latest seasonal show titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star has even more thoughts on the struggles of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, Sennott represents a bridge for this generation, on the cusp adept for connecting both generations).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
Parallels to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and the actress is enthusiastic, citing the show in addition to the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as inspirations for I Love LA, which tracks the travails of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and fledgling agent Maia. Perhaps, the biggest influence on concept was reserved for the popular sitcom, the show focusing on an emerging A-list actor navigating in an often-seedy entertainment industry (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She discovered it throughout the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and chose to create a new version on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The inspiration for I Love LA came—to some extent—from her own, initially fractious, transition to Tinseltown and from the saturn return, a popular phenomenon for enthusiasts. This represented a time that involved her understand some big truths, in her career and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott started developing and showcasing 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 says. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott seized control, appearing at open mics with Edebiri and posting hysterical (and very) weird online content online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted several females obsessively fixated on motherhood; another envisioned being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being stuck in a scary movie. By chance, she connected with Seligman through campus film circles and ultimately appearing in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a religious event with hints of the intense thriller. The big theme of her path, she explains, has been peers supporting her, instead of established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, continuing with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who were skeptical regarding her earlier will certainly be feeling foolish now. Through she calls a “astonishingly complete” development, she appears to manifested the perfect project. A few years back she uploaded a clip called about Los Angeles on social media, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a series about city dwellers managing advantages of internet fame (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being labeled as being a intoxicated thief, and perhaps becoming a risky pariah). One might simple to create a program about internet celebrity that was horribly aspirational—or, worse, one that punched down at its subjects. The series steers clear of each, making for a depiction of advantaged millennial living that’s frank about the mess and the glamour.
Empathetic Approach
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” she comments. “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
