Rachel Sennott enters the digital interview and immediately starts an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, appearing truly regretful. Despite being only a couple of minutes delayed, 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!” Thankfully, in this context, this is precisely what you want to encounter. Additionally, it’s quite predictable. Those who know her boldly openly gay and unapologetically crass project Bottoms—which Sennott collaborated on with her creative partner and featured in alongside close companion the talented actress—can already know that Sennott has plenty to discuss, whether about gender, sex, or the merits of starting a youth combat group. Furthermore, by the end her latest multi-episode show I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries even more insights regarding the struggles of Gen Z life (At 30, she represents a bridge of the gang, on the cusp adept for connecting different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, referencing the show alongside the classic series, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for I Love LA, which details the struggles of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and new representative Maia. However, the biggest spot on creative vision went to the HBO series, that show depicting an emerging celebrity making his way in a gritty Hollywood (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott began viewing it amid COVID-19, became “hooked”, and resolved to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she says. The inspiration for I Love LA originated—in part—from her own, initially fractious, relocation to Los Angeles and from the astrological phase, a popular occurrence for followers. It was an era that involved her learn some big 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. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Humble Origins
Brought up in the East Coast, the star started developing and showcasing humor while enrolled in acting 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. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott decided to act independently, appearing at open mics with her friend and sharing hysterical (and very) weird comedy videos online. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on several females obsessively drawn to pregnancy; another imagined working at the brand Hollister as like being caught in a horror film. By chance, she connected with Emma through campus film circles and ultimately starring in her first film, Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a funeral gathering with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her career, she explains, has been peers giving her a shot, rather than the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she confirms, continuing humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who had doubts regarding Sennott then will certainly be feeling foolish now. Through she calls a “astonishingly complete” story, she appears to created her dream vehicle. In 2019 she shared content named on LA life online, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a series about city dwellers managing benefits of online celebrity (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your client being labeled as being a intoxicated criminal, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). It would be easy to make a series about internet celebrity that was overly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at its subjects. I Love LA steers clear of each, creating a representation of affluent millennial existence that’s candid about the chaos and the shine.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
