Rachel Sennott appears on the online meeting and immediately starts an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, appearing genuinely remorseful. 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!” Thankfully, in this context, that’s exactly what one hopes to encounter. Moreover, it’s fairly expected. Viewers familiar with the boldly LGBTQ+ and brash film Bottoms—which she co-wrote with Emma Seligman and appeared in with close companion the talented actress—will understand that she holds a lot to say, whether on identity, intimacy, or the merits of creating a youth combat group. And, once you finish her latest multi-episode show I Love LA, it is clear that the star has additional perspectives about the challenges of modern youth (Now in her thirties, she is a bridge for this generation, on the cusp skilled for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
Parallels to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and the actress readily acknowledges a fan, citing the show alongside the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as influences for her series, which details the travails of an influencer Tallulah and her friend and aspiring talent manager portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the largest influence on creative vision went to the HBO series, that HBO sitcom depicting an emerging celebrity navigating in a corrupt LA scene (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She began viewing it during COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and resolved 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 says. The concept for the series emerged—in part—from firsthand, at first fractious, move to Los Angeles and from her astrological phase, a popular event for enthusiasts. That period marked a phase that included her learn major life lessons, in her career and in private life. “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…”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in the East Coast, the star began creating and acting humor while studying theatre at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She seized control, appearing at amateur nights with her friend and uploading uproarious (and distinctly) bizarre comedy videos on the internet. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women intensely obsessed with pregnancy; another portrayed working at the brand Hollister as like being trapped in a scary movie. By chance, she connected with Emma through the university’s film scene and ultimately featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her career, she explains, has been peers giving her a shot, instead of established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, adding amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who questioned about Sennott then will certainly be regretting it currently. In what she calls a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she seems to have created an ideal role. Previously she uploaded a clip titled about Los Angeles online, in which she parodied movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a comedy about city dwellers balancing benefits of online celebrity (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your client being labeled as being a drug-addled thief, and potentially becoming a risky pariah). Some could simple to produce a show about internet celebrity that was horribly idealized—or, more problematic, one that mocked at its subjects. The series does neither, making for a depiction of affluent twentysomething living that’s frank about the chaos 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
