Rachel Sennott enters the digital interview and right away launches into an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, sounding really apologetic. Despite being only slightly late, she wants to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, during an interview, that’s precisely what one hopes to experience. Additionally, it’s pretty expected. Anyone familiar with her boldly queer and brash film Bottoms—that she collaborated on with the director and featured in together with her friend Ayo Edebiri—would be aware that she has much to share, be it about gender, intimacy, or the merits of starting a youth combat group. And, by the end her new eight-part program titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star holds further insights regarding the challenges of Gen Z life (As a millennial, Sennott represents a relatable figure to younger audiences, straddling eras with a knack for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and the actress is a fan, referencing it alongside the HBO hit, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as guides for the project, which tracks the struggles of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and fledgling talent manager Sennott’s character. Notably, the biggest spot on the moodboard belonged to the HBO series, that show depicting an up-and-coming Hollywood star succeeding in an often-seedy entertainment industry (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott started watching it amid the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and resolved to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she notes. The inspiration for I Love LA emerged—to some extent—from firsthand, initially fractious, relocation to LA and from the saturn return, a frequently discussed phenomenon for followers. It was an era that included her learn major insights, in her career and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Humble Origins
Raised in the East Coast, the star commenced developing and showcasing stand-up while studying theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “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, taking the stage at open mics with her friend and posting uproarious (and decidedly) bizarre online content on the internet. One, Baby Cult, centered on several females obsessively obsessed with pregnancy; a different one imagined working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being stuck in a horror film. Interestingly, she met Seligman through campus film circles and ended up featuring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her journey, she says, has been contemporaries supporting her, rather than the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, continuing amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Anyone who had doubts about Sennott earlier will certainly be regretting it now. In what she labels a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she has achieved the perfect project. In 2019 she shared a video named about Los Angeles on social media, in which she parodied movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a show about city dwellers managing benefits of internet fame (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your client being suspected of being a substance-abusing criminal, and potentially becoming a risky persona non grata). One might tempting to create a show about online fame that was horribly idealized—or, worse, one that mocked at the characters. The series steers clear of each, resulting in a representation of advantaged twentysomething living that’s frank about the grot and the appeal.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
