Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and right away starts an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, sounding truly regretful. Although she's only a bit 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, for a writer, this is exactly what one hopes to hear. Additionally, it’s quite expected. Viewers familiar with her boldly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass movie titled Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with Emma Seligman and appeared in with collaborator The Bear’s standout—can already know that Sennott has a lot to share, be it about identity, sex, or the pros of forming a youth fight club. And, by the end the new multi-episode HBO series titled I Love LA, it is clear that she carries additional thoughts about the darker side of young adulthood (As a millennial, she serves as an honorary member of the gang, straddling eras adept for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, referencing it alongside the classic series, Insecure and the innovative program as inspirations for her series, which details the journey of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also new representative Maia. However, the biggest spot on concept belonged to the HBO series, that program about a rising A-list actor making his way in an often-seedy Hollywood (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it amid the pandemic, became “captivated”, and resolved to create a new version 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 says. The idea for this project came—partly—from firsthand, initially fractious, move to LA and from her saturn return, a popular event for followers. It was a phase that saw her learn significant insights, professionally and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in the East Coast, the star started writing and performing stand-up while studying performance at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott decided to act independently, performing at live shows with her friend and sharing hilarious (and very) weird online content on the internet. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on a group of women intensely drawn to having babies; another portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being caught in a horror film. Interestingly, she connected with Seligman through campus film circles and eventually starring in her first film, Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her career, she says, has been people her own age supporting her, instead of traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, stating with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who had doubts about Sennott earlier will likely be feeling foolish now. As part of she labels a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she appears to created her dream vehicle. A few years back she uploaded content called “it’s LA” online, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about city dwellers juggling advantages of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your associate being labeled as being a drug-addled thief, and perhaps becoming a unreliable persona non grata). It would be tempting to create a program about internet celebrity that was extremely idealized—or, more problematic, one that belittled at the characters. The series steers clear of each, making for a depiction of advantaged millennial existence that’s candid about the mess and the shine.
Balanced Perspective
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
