Rachel Sennott joins the video call and at once starts an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, sounding really remorseful. Although she's only a bit behind, she needs to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s precisely what is ideal to hear. Besides, it’s fairly predictable. Those familiar with the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and brash film Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with Emma Seligman and appeared in alongside close companion The Bear’s standout—will already know that she possesses plenty to share, ranging from on gender, intimacy, or the pros of starting a high-school combat group. And, by the end her new multi-episode show I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she carries additional perspectives about the struggles of young adulthood (At 30, Sennott represents a bridge for this generation, on the cusp adept for straddling different age groups).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and the actress admits to being a fan, referencing the show alongside Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as guides for I Love LA, which details the journey of a social media star Tallulah and her friend who is also new representative portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the largest presence on creative vision was reserved for the HBO series, the HBO sitcom about an emerging celebrity making his way in a gritty LA scene (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott started watching it amid lockdown, became “obsessed”, and decided to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she says. The inspiration for this project originated—in part—from her own, originally rocky, transition to Tinseltown and from her saturn return, a popular phenomenon for astrology heads. That period marked a phase that included her understand some big truths, in her career and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Humble Origins
Growing up in New England, the star began writing and performing stand-up while enrolled in acting at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, appearing at amateur nights with Edebiri and sharing hysterical (and decidedly) bizarre online content on the internet. One, Baby Cult, depicted several females intensely fixated on pregnancy; another portrayed working at the brand Hollister as akin to being caught in a horror film. Interestingly, she met Seligman through campus film circles and eventually appearing in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a Jewish wake with hints of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her journey, she explains, has been people her own age offering opportunities, as opposed to established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, continuing humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who questioned about Sennott previously will likely be kicking themselves currently. As part of she labels a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she seems to have achieved an ideal role. In 2019 she posted content titled “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she lampooned film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a show about Angelenos managing the perks of digital stardom (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being accused of being a substance-abusing thief, and potentially becoming a risky persona non grata). It would be easy to produce a show about online fame that was horribly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at its subjects. This show steers clear of each, resulting in a portrait of affluent young adult life that’s honest about the mess and the glamour.
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 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
