Rachel Sennott enters the video call and at once starts an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, sounding really remorseful. Despite being only slightly delayed, she needs to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, in this context, this is exactly what is ideal to encounter. Additionally, it’s pretty unsurprising. Those familiar with her fearlessly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—which she collaborated on with the director and starred in with close companion The Bear’s standout—would be aware that she possesses a lot to share, whether on roles, sex, or the merits of creating a youth combat group. Plus, once you finish her new seasonal HBO series I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star has additional thoughts on the darker side of Gen Z life (As a millennial, Sennott represents an honorary member for this generation, on the cusp adept for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott admits to being an admirer, naming the show together with the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as influences for I Love LA, which follows the struggles of a social media star Tallulah and ally and fledgling talent manager portrayed by Sennott. However, the largest presence on creative vision belonged to the popular sitcom, that HBO sitcom focusing on an up-and-coming A-list actor navigating in an often-seedy LA scene (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott started watching it during the pandemic, became “captivated”, and chose to create a new version on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The concept for this project emerged—partly—from personal, initially fractious, move to LA and from her saturn return, a much-talked-about phenomenon for astrology heads. It was an era that involved her understand major life lessons, in her career and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in New England, Sennott started creating and acting stand-up while enrolled in theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, performing at amateur nights with Edebiri and posting hilarious (and decidedly) weird comedy videos digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on several females intensely obsessed with motherhood; another portrayed being employed at the brand Hollister as similar to being caught in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Seligman through the university’s film scene and ultimately featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a funeral gathering with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her path, she explains, has been peers offering opportunities, instead of the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, adding with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who were skeptical regarding her then will certainly be regretting it today. In what she describes as a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she seems to have manifested an ideal role. A few years back she uploaded a clip titled about Los Angeles on social media, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a series about city dwellers juggling benefits of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being labeled as being a intoxicated criminal, and perhaps becoming a unreliable pariah). Some could easy to produce a program about online fame that was extremely idealized—or, worse, one that belittled at the characters. This show does neither, resulting in a portrait of advantaged young adult existence that’s frank about the mess and the shine.
Balanced Perspective
“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
