Rachel Sennott joins the digital interview and immediately starts an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, sounding genuinely apologetic. Despite being only slightly late, she wants to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, for a writer, this is just what is ideal to encounter. Additionally, it’s fairly expected. Anyone familiar with her boldly queer and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with Emma Seligman and featured in alongside collaborator the talented actress—would understand that Sennott possesses much to share, ranging from about roles, relationships, or the appeal of starting a teen combat group. And, by the end her recent seasonal program I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she has further insights about the struggles of young adulthood (At 30, Sennott serves as an honorary member for this generation, straddling eras adept for straddling different age groups).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and the actress readily acknowledges enthusiastic, naming it in addition to the classic series, Insecure and the innovative program as influences for her series, which follows the struggles of online personality Tallulah and ally and aspiring talent manager Maia. Perhaps, the largest influence on concept was reserved for the popular sitcom, that show focusing on a rising Hollywood star navigating in a gritty LA scene (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott started watching it during COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and chose 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 notes. The idea for I Love LA originated—partly—from personal, at first fractious, relocation to Los Angeles and from her saturn return, a frequently discussed phenomenon for astrology heads. It was a phase that included her learn major insights, work-wise and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Humble Origins
Raised in Connecticut, the star began writing and performing humor while studying theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” 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. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott decided to act independently, appearing at open mics with her friend and sharing hysterical (and distinctly) unconventional skits digitally. One, Baby Cult, followed characters obsessively drawn to pregnancy; another portrayed working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being trapped in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ultimately appearing in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of the intense thriller. The big theme of her journey, she says, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, rather than the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, continuing humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who questioned about Sennott earlier will surely be kicking themselves now. Through she calls a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she seems to have manifested her dream vehicle. In 2019 she shared content named on LA life online, in which she lampooned film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a series about LA residents balancing benefits of digital stardom (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being labeled as being a intoxicated thief, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). It would be easy to produce a show about digital influence that was horribly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at those depicted. The series steers clear of each, resulting in a portrait of privileged millennial life that’s frank about the mess and the shine.
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 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
