Rachel Sennott appears on the digital interview and right away launches into an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, appearing truly remorseful. She is only slightly late, she wants to clarify. “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 just what is ideal to hear. Additionally, it’s quite expected. Those familiar with the fearlessly openly gay and unapologetically crass movie Bottoms—which Sennott penned with Emma Seligman and featured in alongside her friend Ayo Edebiri—will be aware that Sennott holds much to share, ranging from on identity, sex, or the pros of forming a high-school fight club. Furthermore, after watching the latest eight-part show titled I Love LA, viewers realize that the star carries additional perspectives on the struggles of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott represents a relatable figure to younger audiences, on the cusp adept for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and Sennott is enthusiastic, citing the show alongside the HBO hit, Insecure and the innovative program as inspirations for the project, which details the struggles of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also new talent manager Maia. However, the most significant presence on concept was reserved for the HBO series, that program focusing on an up-and-coming Hollywood star navigating in a corrupt Hollywood (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it during lockdown, became “obsessed”, and resolved to add a fresh perspective 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 says. The inspiration for the series came—in part—from firsthand, initially difficult, relocation to LA and from her saturn return, a popular phenomenon for enthusiasts. That period marked an era that saw her grasp some big insights, work-wise and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” 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…”
Humble Origins
Raised in the East Coast, the star began developing and showcasing stand-up while enrolled in performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She took matters into her own hands, appearing at live shows with Edebiri and posting hysterical (and distinctly) bizarre online content on the internet. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted several females intensely drawn to having babies; another imagined working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being trapped in a thriller. By chance, she connected with Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ended up featuring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her career, she says, has been contemporaries supporting her, rather than established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, stating amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Rising Success
Individuals who had doubts about her then will certainly be regretting it now. In what she describes as a “astonishingly complete” development, she has achieved the perfect project. In 2019 she uploaded a clip titled “it’s LA” online, in which she parodied film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a show about Angelenos balancing the perks of digital stardom (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your associate being accused of being a drug-addled stealer, and potentially becoming a risky pariah). It would be simple to make a program about online fame that was extremely idealized—or, more problematic, one that belittled at its subjects. This show steers clear of each, creating a representation of affluent twentysomething living that’s frank about the mess and the glamour.
Empathetic Approach
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
