The actress and writer on her side-splitting show about the chaotic allure of younger generation lifestyle
Rachel Sennott enters the video call and immediately begins an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, sounding genuinely apologetic. Despite being only a couple of minutes delayed, she wants to explain. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, in this context, that’s just what is ideal to experience. Besides, it’s quite predictable. Viewers who have seen her unapologetically LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass film Bottoms—which she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and featured in with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—can be aware that she possesses plenty to discuss, be it about identity, relationships, or the appeal of forming a teen fight club. Furthermore, by the end her latest seasonal show titled I Love LA, it is clear that she carries further perspectives regarding the challenges of young adulthood (At 30, she represents an honorary member for this generation, straddling eras with a knack for straddling different age groups).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and the actress admits to being a fan, citing the show alongside Sex and the City, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for her series, which tracks the travails of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also fledgling representative Sennott’s character. However, the biggest influence on concept was reserved for the popular sitcom, the HBO sitcom depicting an emerging Hollywood star navigating in a gritty entertainment industry (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it amid COVID-19, became “captivated”, and chose to put her own twist 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 idea for I Love LA emerged—partly—from firsthand, at first rocky, move to Los Angeles and from her saturn return, a frequently discussed phenomenon for followers. That period marked an era that saw her understand major truths, in her career and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Humble Origins
Growing up in New England, the star started writing and performing humor while studying theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at amateur nights with Edebiri and sharing hysterical (and distinctly) weird skits digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, followed characters obsessively obsessed with pregnancy; a different one envisioned being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being stuck in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Seligman through the university’s film scene and eventually starring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the intense thriller. The big theme of her journey, she says, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, rather than traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, stating amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Anyone who questioned regarding her earlier will certainly be feeling foolish today. As part of she calls a “incredibly circular” development, she has manifested an ideal role. In 2019 she posted a video titled on LA life on the internet, in which she parodied film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a comedy about Angelenos balancing benefits of internet fame (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being suspected of being a substance-abusing criminal, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). Some could simple to produce a series about digital influence that was overly aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at the characters. This show does neither, resulting in a depiction of affluent millennial living that’s candid about the grot and the glamour.
Empathetic Approach
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
