Rachel Sennott joins the online meeting and right away begins an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, sounding truly apologetic. Although she's only slightly late, she wants to explain. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, during an interview, this is precisely what one hopes to hear. Additionally, it’s quite unsurprising. Viewers familiar with her fearlessly queer and unapologetically crass movie titled Bottoms—which she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and appeared in with collaborator The Bear’s standout—will understand that Sennott has a lot to share, ranging from on roles, intimacy, or the merits of starting a high-school fight club. And, by the end the latest seasonal show I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds additional perspectives on the struggles of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott serves as a relatable figure of the gang, straddling eras skilled for connecting different age groups).
Influences and Creative Vision
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott readily acknowledges an admirer, naming it in addition to the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as guides for the project, which tracks the struggles of a social media star Tallulah and close companion and aspiring talent manager Maia. Notably, the biggest influence on concept was reserved for the HBO series, the show about an up-and-coming celebrity navigating in a gritty Hollywood (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott discovered it during the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and decided to add a fresh perspective on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The idea for I Love LA came—partly—from firsthand, originally rocky, transition to Tinseltown and from her cosmic event, a popular phenomenon for enthusiasts. This represented a phase that included her learn significant truths, in her career and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Starting Out
Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott commenced creating and acting humor while studying performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. 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.”
Sennott decided to act independently, appearing at amateur nights with her friend and posting uproarious (and decidedly) unconventional comedy videos online. One, Baby Cult, depicted a group of women obsessively fixated on motherhood; a different one imagined working at the brand Hollister as like being trapped in a scary movie. Interestingly, she connected with Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up starring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a religious event with shades of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her career, she says, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, rather than established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, stating amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Anyone who had doubts regarding Sennott then will likely be kicking themselves now. Through she labels a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she appears to achieved her dream vehicle. In 2019 she uploaded a video titled “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a series about city dwellers juggling benefits of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being labeled as being a intoxicated criminal, and possibly becoming a unreliable persona non grata). It would be simple to make a show about digital influence that was horribly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at the characters. The series steers clear of each, resulting in a portrait of privileged twentysomething life that’s candid about the chaos 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 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
