Rachel Sennott enters the digital interview and at once starts an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, sounding genuinely regretful. Although she's only a couple of minutes late, she feels compelled to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, in this context, that’s just what one hopes to hear. Moreover, it’s pretty unsurprising. Anyone who have seen her unapologetically LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass film Bottoms—that she collaborated on with the director and featured in alongside her friend The Bear’s standout—will be aware that Sennott holds plenty to share, ranging from about roles, intimacy, or the merits of creating a teen fight club. Furthermore, by the end her recent multi-episode show I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star holds further insights on the challenges of Gen Z life (At 30, she represents an honorary member of the gang, straddling eras with a knack for straddling different age groups).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and the actress admits to being a fan, citing the show together with Sex and the City, Insecure and the innovative program as guides for I Love LA, which follows the journey of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and fledgling agent Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the biggest influence on the moodboard belonged to the popular sitcom, that show about a rising A-list actor making his way in a corrupt LA scene (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott started watching it amid COVID-19, became “captivated”, and decided 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 explains. The inspiration for this project originated—in part—from her own, originally fractious, relocation to Los Angeles and from her astrological phase, a popular event for astrology heads. It was a time that saw her learn major insights, work-wise and personally. “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.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in the East Coast, Sennott began creating and acting comedy while studying performance at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott seized control, performing at live shows with her friend and uploading hysterical (and decidedly) bizarre skits online. One, Baby Cult, followed several females obsessively obsessed with having babies; a different one envisioned working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being stuck in a thriller. Interestingly, she connected with Emma through NYU’s movie community and ultimately featuring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a funeral gathering with hints of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her career, she notes, has been peers supporting her, rather than established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, stating with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who had doubts regarding Sennott previously will certainly be feeling foolish now. In what she calls a “wild, full-circle” story, she appears to manifested her dream vehicle. Previously she shared content called “it’s LA” on social media, in which she parodied film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a show about Angelenos juggling benefits of digital stardom (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your client being labeled as being a drug-addled thief, and potentially becoming a risky pariah). It would be easy to produce a show about internet celebrity that was horribly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at its subjects. This show does neither, making for a depiction of advantaged twentysomething living that’s frank about the mess and the shine.
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 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
