Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and at once starts an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, seeming truly regretful. Despite being only a bit behind, she needs to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, for a writer, this is precisely what is ideal to experience. Additionally, it’s quite predictable. Viewers familiar with the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and brash movie titled Bottoms—that she penned with the director and starred in alongside collaborator The Bear’s standout—can understand that Sennott holds much to say, ranging from about identity, sex, or the pros of starting a high-school brawl society. Furthermore, after watching the new multi-episode HBO series I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star carries further thoughts on the struggles of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, she is a bridge of the gang, straddling eras skilled for straddling different age groups).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress admits to being an admirer, naming the show alongside the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as influences for her series, which tracks the struggles of a social media star Tallulah and her friend who is also aspiring agent Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the largest presence on creative vision went to the popular sitcom, the show depicting a rising A-list actor succeeding in an often-seedy entertainment industry (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott started watching it throughout the pandemic, became “hooked”, and resolved to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she says. The inspiration for I Love LA came—to some extent—from firsthand, at first fractious, relocation to Tinseltown and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about event for followers. That period marked a time that saw her learn some big life lessons, professionally and individually. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” 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
Raised in the East Coast, the star began writing and performing stand-up while pursuing performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott decided to act independently, taking the stage at amateur nights with Edebiri and uploading hilarious (and very) bizarre skits on the internet. One, Baby Cult, centered on characters fetishistically obsessed with having babies; another imagined working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being trapped in a scary movie. By chance, she connected with Seligman through the university’s film scene and ended up featuring in her first film, Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a Jewish wake with hints of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her path, she says, has been peers offering opportunities, as opposed to established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, stating amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Anyone who had doubts about her previously will likely be kicking themselves today. In what she describes as a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she seems to have achieved the perfect project. A few years back she posted content titled about Los Angeles online, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about Angelenos managing advantages of digital stardom (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your client being accused of being a substance-abusing criminal, and possibly becoming a unreliable persona non grata). One might simple to make a program about internet celebrity that was extremely glamorous—or, worse, one that punched down at those depicted. The series avoids both, making for a portrait of advantaged young adult life that’s candid about the grot and the glamour.
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 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
