Rachel Sennott enters the digital interview and immediately starts an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, sounding truly regretful. Although she's only slightly late, she wants to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, for a writer, this is precisely what is ideal to encounter. Additionally, it’s fairly predictable. Those familiar with the boldly LGBTQ+ and brash project titled Bottoms—which she collaborated on with her creative partner and featured in together with her friend The Bear’s standout—will already know that she possesses plenty to share, be it about roles, sex, or the pros of starting a youth fight club. Plus, once you finish the recent seasonal program titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she has even more thoughts regarding the challenges of young adulthood (As a millennial, she represents a bridge of the gang, straddling eras with a knack for bridging different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and the actress is an admirer, citing it in addition to the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as inspirations for I Love LA, which tracks the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and fledgling representative Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the largest influence on creative vision was reserved for the HBO series, the show about an up-and-coming celebrity making his way in a corrupt Hollywood (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott discovered it during lockdown, 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 idea for this project came—partly—from her own, initially difficult, relocation to LA and from the astrological phase, a much-talked-about phenomenon for followers. That period marked a phase that saw her learn major truths, professionally and individually. “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.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Starting Out
Brought up in the East Coast, Sennott began writing and performing stand-up while pursuing performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “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.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott decided to act independently, taking the stage at open mics with Edebiri and sharing hilarious (and distinctly) bizarre comedy videos online. One, titled Baby Cult, followed characters intensely drawn to having babies; another imagined working at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being stuck in a scary movie. By chance, she met Seligman through NYU’s movie community and eventually appearing in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a religious event with echoes of the intense thriller. The central motif of her journey, she explains, has been people her own age offering opportunities, as opposed to established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, adding amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who had doubts about Sennott then will surely be regretting it now. Through she labels a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she appears to created an ideal role. Previously she shared content called on LA life on the internet, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a series about LA residents managing benefits of internet fame (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your friend being suspected of being a intoxicated thief, and perhaps becoming a risky persona non grata). Some could simple to produce a program about internet celebrity that was extremely idealized—or, worse, one that mocked at those depicted. I Love LA avoids both, creating a depiction of advantaged young adult life that’s candid about the grot and the glamour.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
