Rachel Sennott on her uproarious show portraying that messy allure of today's youth lifestyle
The performer appears on the online meeting and at once begins an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, seeming really apologetic. Although she's only slightly behind, she wants to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, during an interview, this is exactly what is ideal to hear. Besides, it’s quite predictable. Those who know the unapologetically queer and brash film titled Bottoms—which she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and featured in together with her friend The Bear’s standout—will be aware that Sennott possesses a lot to discuss, be it about identity, sex, or the merits of starting a high-school brawl society. Plus, after watching her latest eight-part show I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she has further insights about the challenges of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, Sennott is an honorary member of the gang, on the cusp with a knack for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and the actress readily acknowledges enthusiastic, naming the show alongside Sex and the City, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as guides for I Love LA, which tracks the journey of online personality Tallulah and ally who is also fledgling representative portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the largest influence on concept went to the HBO series, that show about an up-and-coming A-list actor making his way in a gritty Hollywood (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She began viewing it amid the pandemic, became “captivated”, and resolved to put her own twist on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The concept for I Love LA emerged—to some extent—from personal, originally rocky, transition to Los Angeles and from the cosmic event, a popular occurrence for followers. It was a phase that included her understand some big truths, work-wise and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “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
Growing up in the East Coast, the star started creating and acting humor while enrolled in theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott seized control, appearing at open mics with Ayo and posting hilarious (and decidedly) unconventional skits on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, followed several females fetishistically obsessed with pregnancy; a different one imagined being employed at the brand Hollister as similar to being trapped in a thriller. By chance, she encountered Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ended up starring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a religious event with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her path, she explains, has been contemporaries supporting her, rather than traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she confirms, adding with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Rising Success
Individuals who had doubts regarding her then will certainly be regretting it now. In what she labels a “wild, full-circle” development, she has achieved the perfect project. Previously she posted content called on LA life on social media, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a comedy about city dwellers managing advantages of digital stardom (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being accused of being a drug-addled stealer, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). Some could easy to create a series about internet celebrity that was extremely aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at the characters. This show avoids both, resulting in a portrait of privileged twentysomething existence that’s honest about the grot and the shine.
Nuanced Portrayal
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” 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