Rachel Sennott joins the online meeting and immediately begins an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, appearing truly remorseful. She is only a bit late, she needs to explain. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, in this context, this is precisely what one hopes to encounter. Besides, it’s fairly predictable. Viewers familiar with the fearlessly openly gay and outspoken project Bottoms—that she penned with her creative partner and featured in alongside collaborator The Bear’s standout—will be aware that she has a lot to say, be it on gender, sex, or the pros of forming a teen combat group. Furthermore, by the end the recent eight-part HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that she holds further insights on the struggles of young adulthood (As a millennial, she represents a relatable figure to younger audiences, on the cusp with a knack for connecting both generations).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress is enthusiastic, referencing it alongside the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as guides for her series, which follows the struggles of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and aspiring talent manager Sennott’s character. However, the largest influence on concept belonged to Entourage, the program about an emerging Hollywood star succeeding in an often-seedy LA scene (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott started watching it throughout the pandemic, became “hooked”, and decided to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she says. The concept for the series emerged—to some extent—from her own, initially fractious, transition to LA and from the astrological phase, a much-talked-about occurrence for astrology heads. This represented a phase that involved 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. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Humble Origins
Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott commenced creating and acting humor while studying performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott decided to act independently, appearing at live shows with Edebiri and uploading hilarious (and distinctly) weird online content digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, followed characters intensely fixated on pregnancy; a different one envisioned working at a trendy retail outlet as like being caught in a thriller. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and ultimately appearing in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of the intense thriller. The big theme of her career, she notes, has been peers giving her a shot, as opposed to established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, stating amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who were skeptical regarding her then will surely be regretting it now. As part of she calls a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she has created the perfect project. In 2019 she shared a video called about Los Angeles on social media, in which she parodied movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a show about city dwellers juggling benefits of digital stardom (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being accused of being a drug-addled thief, and possibly becoming a risky outcast). One might easy to create a program about online fame that was extremely glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at the characters. I Love LA avoids both, resulting in a depiction of advantaged twentysomething existence that’s frank about the chaos and the appeal.
Empathetic Approach
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” 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
