Rachel Sennott joins the online meeting and at once starts an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, seeming genuinely remorseful. She is only a couple of minutes delayed, she feels compelled to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, in this context, that’s exactly what is ideal to hear. Moreover, it’s fairly unsurprising. Those who know the fearlessly openly gay and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—that Sennott penned with Emma Seligman and appeared in alongside her friend Ayo Edebiri—can be aware that she holds a lot to discuss, be it on gender, intimacy, or the merits of starting a teen combat group. Furthermore, once you finish the latest seasonal program I Love LA, it is clear that she holds even more thoughts on the struggles of young adulthood (As a millennial, Sennott is an honorary member of the gang, straddling eras skilled for straddling different age groups).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott readily acknowledges an admirer, naming it in addition to the HBO hit, Insecure and Atlanta as inspirations for her series, which tracks the travails of an influencer Tallulah and close companion who is also new agent Sennott’s character. Notably, the largest presence on the moodboard belonged to the HBO series, the show about an emerging celebrity making his way in a corrupt LA scene (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it during lockdown, became “obsessed”, and chose to add a fresh perspective on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she explains. The inspiration for the series came—to some extent—from her own, initially fractious, relocation to LA and from the cosmic event, a much-talked-about occurrence for enthusiasts. It was an era that involved her understand some big life lessons, professionally and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Starting Out
Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott started developing and showcasing humor while enrolled in theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “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 took matters into her own hands, performing at live shows with Ayo and posting hysterical (and distinctly) bizarre online content online. One, Baby Cult, depicted a group of women intensely drawn to motherhood; a different one portrayed being employed at the brand Hollister as like being caught in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Emma through the university’s film scene and ultimately starring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a Jewish wake with hints of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her path, she notes, has been contemporaries supporting her, instead of traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she confirms, stating humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Those who questioned regarding Sennott earlier will surely be feeling foolish today. Through she calls a “astonishingly complete” development, she seems to have manifested an ideal role. Previously she shared a clip called about Los Angeles online, in which she lampooned film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a series about Angelenos juggling advantages of online celebrity (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being accused of being a substance-abusing criminal, and possibly becoming a risky pariah). Some could simple to create a series about internet celebrity that was extremely aspirational—or, more problematic, one that belittled at its subjects. I Love LA avoids both, resulting in a portrait of advantaged millennial existence that’s frank about the chaos and the glamour.
Balanced Perspective
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” she comments. “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
