Rachel Sennott joins the video call and at once starts an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, sounding truly apologetic. She is only slightly delayed, she wants to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, for a writer, this is just what is ideal to encounter. Besides, it’s quite predictable. Viewers who have seen the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass film Bottoms—which she collaborated on with her creative partner and featured in together with close companion The Bear’s standout—will understand that she holds a lot to discuss, be it on identity, intimacy, or the merits of creating a youth fight club. Furthermore, once you finish her recent seasonal HBO series I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star has even more perspectives on the struggles of modern youth (Now in her thirties, she is a bridge for this generation, straddling eras adept for straddling both generations).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and the actress admits to being enthusiastic, referencing it in addition to Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as guides for the project, which details the journey of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and aspiring representative portrayed by Sennott. However, the most significant influence on concept went to the HBO series, that HBO sitcom focusing on a rising celebrity navigating in an often-seedy LA scene (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it during COVID-19, became “hooked”, and chose 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 I Love LA emerged—to some extent—from firsthand, originally difficult, transition to Tinseltown and from her astrological phase, a popular event for astrology heads. It was an era that included her grasp some big insights, work-wise and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in New England, Sennott commenced creating and acting comedy while enrolled in performance at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, performing at live shows with her friend and posting uproarious (and distinctly) unconventional skits digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted a group of women obsessively obsessed with motherhood; another envisioned working at the brand Hollister as like being trapped in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she met Emma through the university’s film scene and ultimately featuring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a religious event with echoes of the intense thriller. The big theme of her career, she explains, has been peers giving her a shot, rather than traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, continuing with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who questioned about her then will likely be kicking themselves now. As part of she calls a “astonishingly complete” development, she seems to have achieved the perfect project. In 2019 she posted content titled “it’s LA” online, in which she mocked movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a comedy about Angelenos balancing benefits of digital stardom (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your client being accused of being a drug-addled criminal, and potentially becoming a risky persona non grata). Some could easy to create a show about online fame that was overly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at its subjects. I Love LA steers clear of each, creating a depiction of privileged twentysomething living 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 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
