Rachel Sennott enters the digital interview and right away starts an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, sounding truly regretful. Although she's only a couple of minutes late, she needs to explain. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, for a writer, that’s exactly what you want to encounter. Moreover, it’s pretty unsurprising. Viewers familiar with the boldly LGBTQ+ and brash film Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with Emma Seligman and featured in together with her friend Ayo Edebiri—would be aware that she has plenty to discuss, ranging from on gender, relationships, or the merits of creating a high-school fight club. Plus, by the end the latest seasonal program titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries further insights regarding the struggles of young adulthood (At 30, she represents a relatable figure of the gang, on the cusp adept for straddling different age groups).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and the actress is a fan, referencing the show together with Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as influences for the project, which follows the struggles of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also fledgling agent Sennott’s character. However, the biggest presence on the moodboard went to the HBO series, the program depicting a rising celebrity navigating in an often-seedy entertainment industry (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it amid the pandemic, 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 concept for I Love LA emerged—to some extent—from personal, at first fractious, relocation to Tinseltown and from her saturn return, a popular event for followers. That period marked an era that saw her learn some big truths, in her career and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in New England, the star started writing and performing stand-up while pursuing theatre at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott seized control, taking the stage at open mics with Ayo and uploading uproarious (and very) bizarre online content on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on characters obsessively obsessed with pregnancy; a different one portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being stuck in a scary movie. By chance, she connected with Seligman through the university’s film scene and ended up appearing in her first film, Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a religious event with hints of the intense thriller. The central motif of her career, she notes, has been people her own age giving her a shot, as opposed to established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, stating humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who were skeptical regarding Sennott earlier will surely be regretting it today. As part of she calls a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she appears to achieved her dream vehicle. A few years back she posted a video titled “it’s LA” online, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a series about Angelenos juggling benefits of digital stardom (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your associate being suspected of being a drug-addled stealer, and possibly becoming a risky persona non grata). One might tempting to produce a show about internet celebrity that was horribly aspirational—or, more problematic, one that punched down at those depicted. I Love LA steers clear of each, creating a portrait of advantaged young adult existence that’s honest about the chaos and the shine.
Empathetic Approach
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
