Rachel Sennott joins the online meeting and right away launches into an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, sounding genuinely remorseful. She is only slightly delayed, she wants to clarify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, during an interview, that’s just what one hopes to experience. Besides, it’s pretty predictable. Anyone familiar with the boldly openly gay and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—that she co-wrote with the director and starred in alongside collaborator the talented actress—can already know that she has much to share, be it about roles, sex, or the pros of starting a teen fight club. Furthermore, by the end her new seasonal HBO series I Love LA, viewers realize that the star holds additional perspectives about the challenges of modern youth (As a millennial, Sennott represents a bridge of the gang, straddling eras skilled for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and the actress admits to being a fan, citing it alongside Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as guides for I Love LA, which details the journey of online personality Tallulah and her friend and aspiring talent manager portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the most significant influence on the moodboard went to Entourage, the program focusing on an emerging celebrity making his way in a corrupt entertainment industry (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott discovered it during COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and chose to put her own twist on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The concept for the series came—in part—from her own, at first rocky, move to Tinseltown and from the cosmic event, a much-talked-about occurrence for followers. That period marked an era that included her learn some big life lessons, professionally and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” 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
Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott began creating and acting comedy while pursuing theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “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. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at open mics with her friend and uploading hysterical (and distinctly) bizarre online content digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on several females obsessively obsessed with motherhood; a different one envisioned being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being trapped in a horror film. By chance, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and ultimately appearing in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her career, she says, has been people her own age giving her a shot, instead of established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, continuing with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Anyone who were skeptical about her earlier will certainly be regretting it now. In what she describes as a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she has manifested her dream vehicle. A few years back she uploaded a clip titled about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a series about LA residents juggling the perks of digital stardom (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being suspected of being a drug-addled thief, and possibly becoming a risky persona non grata). Some could tempting to make a series about internet celebrity that was extremely idealized—or, more problematic, one that punched down at those depicted. I Love LA avoids both, resulting in a depiction of advantaged twentysomething living that’s frank about the chaos and the glamour.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
