Rachel Sennott joins the digital interview and immediately starts an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, appearing truly remorseful. She is only slightly delayed, she feels compelled to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, during an interview, this is exactly what is ideal to hear. Moreover, it’s pretty predictable. Those who know her fearlessly openly gay and outspoken film Bottoms—which Sennott collaborated on with the director and starred in together with her friend the talented actress—will already know that she possesses plenty to share, be it on roles, relationships, or the merits of creating a high-school brawl society. Plus, once you finish her new multi-episode HBO series I Love LA, viewers realize that the star has further thoughts regarding the darker side of Gen Z life (At 30, she serves as a bridge of the gang, a tale-end millennial with a knack for bridging both generations).
Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, naming it alongside the classic series, Insecure and Atlanta as guides for I Love LA, which follows the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also aspiring representative Sennott’s character. However, the largest spot on concept went to the popular sitcom, that show depicting an emerging A-list actor making his way in a gritty Hollywood (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it amid the pandemic, became “captivated”, and resolved to put her own twist 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 notes. The inspiration for I Love LA originated—to some extent—from firsthand, at first difficult, relocation to LA and from the saturn return, a much-talked-about phenomenon for astrology heads. It was an era that included her learn major life lessons, in her career and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” 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…”
Starting Out
Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott started creating and acting comedy while enrolled in acting at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she explains. “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, taking the stage at amateur nights with Ayo and uploading hysterical (and decidedly) weird comedy videos digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted several females intensely drawn to having babies; another portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as like being trapped in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Emma through campus film circles and ultimately appearing in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a religious event with hints of the intense thriller. The central motif of her journey, she notes, has been peers supporting her, instead of traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, stating humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Rising Success
Those who were skeptical regarding Sennott earlier will surely be kicking themselves now. In what she describes as a “astonishingly complete” development, she appears to manifested the perfect project. A few years back she uploaded a clip titled on LA life on the internet, in which she parodied film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a comedy about LA residents balancing the perks of online celebrity (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being accused of being a drug-addled criminal, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). Some could easy to create a program about internet celebrity that was extremely idealized—or, worse, one that belittled at its subjects. This show steers clear of each, creating a depiction of advantaged twentysomething living that’s frank about the grot and the glamour.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
