Rachel Sennott joins the online meeting and at once starts an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, appearing really regretful. Despite being only slightly delayed, she feels compelled to justify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, in this context, that’s precisely what is ideal to experience. Besides, it’s pretty unsurprising. Viewers who know the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—that she co-wrote with Emma Seligman and starred in together with her friend the talented actress—can understand that she possesses much to discuss, ranging from on identity, sex, or the appeal of forming a high-school brawl society. Furthermore, once you finish her recent eight-part program I Love LA, it is clear that she carries further thoughts about the challenges of modern youth (At 30, she is a bridge for this generation, a tale-end millennial with a knack for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and Sennott is enthusiastic, naming it together with the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as guides for I Love LA, which details the travails of online personality Tallulah and ally who is also new talent manager Maia. However, the largest presence on creative vision belonged to Entourage, the program about a rising A-list actor navigating in a gritty LA scene (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She began viewing it during lockdown, became “hooked”, and resolved to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she explains. The concept for the series came—in part—from firsthand, initially fractious, move to LA and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about event for followers. It was a phase that included her learn significant insights, in her career and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott started creating and acting stand-up while pursuing performance at a prestigious arts school. “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. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott decided to act independently, taking the stage at live shows with Ayo and posting hysterical (and very) weird online content digitally. One, Baby Cult, depicted characters fetishistically drawn to motherhood; a different one envisioned working at the brand Hollister as akin to being stuck in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she met Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up featuring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her career, she says, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, instead of established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, adding amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Manifesting Dreams
Individuals who had doubts about her then will certainly be regretting it currently. In what she labels a “wild, full-circle” development, she appears to achieved the perfect project. Previously she posted content titled on LA life on the internet, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a series about LA residents juggling the perks of digital stardom (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your client being suspected of being a intoxicated thief, and perhaps becoming a risky pariah). Some could tempting to create a show about internet celebrity that was overly aspirational—or, worse, one that mocked at its subjects. I Love LA steers clear of each, resulting in a depiction of privileged young adult living that’s candid about the grot and the shine.
Nuanced Portrayal
“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
