Rachel Sennott joins the video call and at once begins an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, appearing truly regretful. Although she's only a bit delayed, she needs to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s precisely what you want to hear. Besides, it’s fairly unsurprising. Anyone who have seen her fearlessly queer and outspoken film Bottoms—that she co-wrote with the director and appeared in together with close companion The Bear’s standout—can understand that she holds much to share, ranging from on roles, sex, or the pros of creating a high-school brawl society. Furthermore, once you finish the recent multi-episode program I Love LA, viewers realize that she has even more perspectives regarding the darker side of young adulthood (At 30, she is an honorary member of the gang, a tale-end millennial with a knack for straddling both generations).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
Parallels to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and the actress admits to being a fan, referencing it together with Sex and the City, Insecure and Atlanta as inspirations for the project, which follows the struggles of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and aspiring agent portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the biggest spot on creative vision belonged to the popular sitcom, that program about an up-and-coming A-list actor making his way in a gritty LA scene (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it throughout COVID-19, became “hooked”, and chose to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she notes. The inspiration for this project emerged—to some extent—from her own, originally difficult, relocation to Los Angeles and from her cosmic event, a much-talked-about event for enthusiasts. It was a phase that saw her grasp major truths, work-wise and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “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 Connecticut, Sennott began writing and performing stand-up while enrolled in theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. 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 decided to act independently, appearing at live shows with her friend and posting hysterical (and decidedly) unconventional comedy videos digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted characters obsessively drawn to pregnancy; another imagined working at a trendy retail outlet as like being trapped in a scary movie. By chance, she met Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually starring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a religious event with hints of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her journey, she explains, has been peers giving her a shot, rather than the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, continuing amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who had doubts regarding Sennott earlier will likely be regretting it now. As part of she labels a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she seems to have created the perfect project. In 2019 she shared content called about Los Angeles on social media, in which she parodied movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a series about city dwellers managing benefits of internet fame (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your friend being accused of being a intoxicated criminal, and perhaps becoming a unreliable outcast). One might tempting to produce a show about online fame that was extremely idealized—or, worse, one that mocked at the characters. The series steers clear of each, creating a depiction of privileged young adult existence that’s candid about the grot and the appeal.
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
