Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and immediately starts an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, seeming genuinely regretful. She is only a bit late, she wants to justify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, during an interview, that’s exactly what one hopes to experience. Additionally, it’s pretty predictable. Viewers who have seen her unapologetically LGBTQ+ and outspoken film titled Bottoms—which Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and appeared in together with collaborator The Bear’s standout—will be aware that Sennott possesses much to discuss, ranging from on roles, relationships, or the merits of creating a teen combat group. And, once you finish her new eight-part show titled I Love LA, it is clear that she carries additional perspectives regarding the challenges of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, she serves as a relatable figure to younger audiences, straddling eras with a knack for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott is an admirer, naming the show together with the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as inspirations for her series, which tracks the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also new agent Maia. Notably, the biggest spot on creative vision went to the popular sitcom, the program about an emerging celebrity navigating in a gritty entertainment industry (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott discovered it during COVID-19, became “hooked”, and chose to add a fresh perspective on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she explains. The inspiration for this project originated—to some extent—from her own, originally rocky, transition to Los Angeles and from her saturn return, a popular occurrence for followers. It was a phase that included her grasp significant life lessons, professionally and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Humble Origins
Raised in New England, the star started developing and showcasing humor while enrolled in theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. 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.”
She seized control, appearing at amateur nights with Ayo and posting hilarious (and decidedly) unconventional comedy videos digitally. One, Baby Cult, centered on a group of women obsessively obsessed with having babies; a different one imagined working at the brand Hollister as similar to being stuck in a horror film. By chance, she connected with Seligman through campus film circles and ended up featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a funeral gathering with hints of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her career, she notes, has been peers offering opportunities, instead of the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, continuing with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who were skeptical about Sennott earlier will surely be regretting it now. In what she calls a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she has achieved the perfect project. In 2019 she uploaded a clip named about Los Angeles online, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about city dwellers managing the perks of internet fame (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being suspected of being a intoxicated stealer, and potentially becoming a unreliable persona non grata). Some could simple to make a program about online fame that was overly aspirational—or, worse, one that belittled at the characters. This show steers clear of each, resulting in a portrait of privileged young adult life that’s candid about the chaos and the appeal.
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
