Rachel Sennott appears on the digital interview and at once starts an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, sounding truly apologetic. Although she's only a couple of minutes late, she needs to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Fortunately, in this context, that’s just what you want to encounter. Besides, it’s pretty predictable. Those familiar with her unapologetically openly gay and outspoken film Bottoms—which she penned with the director and starred in with close companion Ayo Edebiri—would understand that she possesses much to say, be it on identity, sex, or the merits of forming a high-school combat group. Plus, once you finish her recent eight-part HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds even more thoughts on the darker side of Gen Z life (As a millennial, Sennott serves as a bridge to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial skilled for straddling different age groups).
Influences and Creative Vision
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and the actress admits to being enthusiastic, referencing it in addition to the classic series, Insecure and Atlanta as inspirations for her series, which details the journey of online personality Tallulah and ally who is also new talent manager Sennott’s character. However, the most significant spot on the moodboard was reserved for the HBO series, the HBO sitcom focusing on an emerging celebrity navigating in a corrupt LA scene (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She started watching it amid COVID-19, became “hooked”, and decided to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she explains. The inspiration for I Love LA originated—in part—from her own, originally difficult, relocation to LA and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about phenomenon for followers. This represented a time that involved her grasp major life lessons, professionally and individually. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she says. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Starting Out
Brought up in the East Coast, the star started writing and performing comedy while studying theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, performing at live shows with her friend and uploading uproarious (and decidedly) unconventional comedy videos online. One, titled Baby Cult, followed several females intensely obsessed with pregnancy; a different one envisioned working at a trendy retail outlet as like being trapped in a thriller. Interestingly, she met Seligman through NYU’s movie community and eventually appearing in her first film, Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a religious event with hints of the intense thriller. The central motif of her path, she says, has been people her own age giving her a shot, rather than the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she confirms, adding with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who questioned about Sennott then will surely be kicking themselves currently. In what she describes as a “incredibly circular” development, she seems to have achieved her dream vehicle. A few years back she posted a clip titled “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she lampooned film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a show about city dwellers balancing benefits of online celebrity (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being suspected of being a drug-addled criminal, and potentially becoming a risky pariah). One might tempting to create a program about internet celebrity that was extremely aspirational—or, worse, one that belittled at those depicted. This show does neither, resulting in a representation of privileged twentysomething living that’s candid about the mess and the appeal.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” she observes. “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
