Rachel Sennott enters the video call and at once begins an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, appearing truly regretful. Although she's only slightly delayed, she feels compelled to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, during an interview, this is just what one hopes to hear. Besides, it’s fairly predictable. Those who have seen the boldly openly gay and unapologetically crass project titled Bottoms—which she collaborated on with her creative partner and appeared in with collaborator the talented actress—can already know that she has much to share, be it about identity, sex, or the pros of creating a teen fight club. And, once you finish the recent seasonal HBO series titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she carries further thoughts about the darker side of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott represents a relatable figure of the gang, a tale-end millennial skilled for bridging both generations).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and the actress readily acknowledges a fan, referencing the show together with Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as inspirations for I Love LA, which tracks the struggles of online personality Tallulah and her friend and new agent portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the most significant influence on concept was reserved for Entourage, the program focusing on an up-and-coming Hollywood star making his way in a corrupt entertainment industry (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She discovered it throughout lockdown, became “hooked”, and resolved to put her own twist 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 says. The inspiration for the series emerged—in part—from her own, originally rocky, move to Tinseltown and from the saturn return, a popular phenomenon for followers. This represented an era that involved her learn major life lessons, professionally and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in the East Coast, Sennott began developing and showcasing humor while enrolled in theatre at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” 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 took matters into her own hands, performing at live shows with Edebiri and sharing hilarious (and very) weird online content on the internet. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on several females obsessively obsessed with motherhood; another envisioned working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being caught in a thriller. By chance, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her journey, she says, has been peers giving her a shot, instead of traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, adding humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who had doubts regarding Sennott earlier will likely be regretting it now. As part of she describes as a “wild, full-circle” development, she seems to have achieved an ideal role. In 2019 she uploaded a video called about Los Angeles on social media, in which she mocked movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a show about LA residents juggling benefits of internet fame (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being accused of being a drug-addled stealer, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). It would be easy to make a series about online fame that was extremely glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at the characters. I Love LA does neither, resulting in a representation of advantaged millennial existence that’s candid about the grot and the appeal.
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 observes. “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
