Rachel Sennott appears on the video call and immediately launches into an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, sounding genuinely remorseful. Although she's only a bit late, she feels compelled to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, in this context, this is exactly what one hopes to encounter. Additionally, it’s pretty expected. Viewers who know the unapologetically openly gay and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—that Sennott penned with Emma Seligman and appeared in alongside collaborator Ayo Edebiri—will already know that she has much to discuss, be it on gender, relationships, or the merits of creating a teen combat group. Plus, once you finish her recent multi-episode HBO series I Love LA, viewers realize that the star has even more insights about the darker side of Gen Z life (As a millennial, she represents a relatable figure to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial adept for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and the actress admits to being an admirer, citing it in addition to the HBO hit, Insecure and Atlanta as guides for the project, which tracks the travails of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and new representative Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the largest influence on concept was reserved for the HBO series, that show about an emerging A-list actor making his way in an often-seedy Hollywood (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She discovered it amid lockdown, became “hooked”, and resolved to add a fresh perspective 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 explains. The concept for I Love LA originated—partly—from firsthand, at first rocky, relocation to LA and from the saturn return, a popular occurrence for enthusiasts. It was a time that included her learn some big life lessons, professionally and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Starting Out
Raised in the East Coast, Sennott started developing and showcasing stand-up while enrolled in theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “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 took matters into her own hands, appearing at live shows with Ayo and uploading hysterical (and very) weird comedy videos on the internet. One, Baby Cult, depicted several females obsessively fixated on motherhood; a different one envisioned working at the brand Hollister as akin to being caught in a thriller. Interestingly, she met Seligman through campus film circles and eventually appearing in her first film, Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a Jewish wake with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her journey, she explains, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, instead of traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, continuing with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Those who were skeptical about her then will likely be kicking themselves now. Through she calls a “astonishingly complete” story, she has created the perfect project. Previously she shared content titled on LA life on the internet, in which she mocked film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a series about LA residents juggling the perks of online celebrity (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being suspected of being a intoxicated stealer, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). One might simple to make a series about online fame that was horribly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that mocked at those depicted. This show steers clear of each, making for a representation of advantaged twentysomething life that’s frank about the chaos and the shine.
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
