Rachel Sennott enters the video call and at once launches into an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, sounding genuinely regretful. Although she's only slightly behind, she feels compelled to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, during an interview, that’s just what one hopes to encounter. Besides, it’s quite unsurprising. Viewers who have seen her fearlessly LGBTQ+ and outspoken film titled Bottoms—that she co-wrote with the director and featured in together with collaborator The Bear’s standout—can already know that she possesses a lot to discuss, whether on roles, relationships, or the appeal of creating a high-school combat group. Plus, after watching the new seasonal show I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds even more perspectives on the challenges of young adulthood (As a millennial, she is an honorary member to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial adept for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Creative Vision
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and Sennott admits to being a fan, referencing the show together with the HBO hit, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as influences for the project, which details the travails of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and new talent manager Maia. Perhaps, the most significant influence on the moodboard was reserved for the popular sitcom, that HBO sitcom about an emerging celebrity navigating in a gritty entertainment industry (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott discovered it throughout lockdown, became “obsessed”, and decided to put her own twist on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she explains. The inspiration for the series emerged—partly—from her own, originally rocky, relocation to LA and from the cosmic event, a frequently discussed phenomenon for enthusiasts. It was an era that saw her understand some big insights, work-wise and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Starting Out
Brought up in Connecticut, the star started creating and acting stand-up while enrolled in performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “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. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott decided to act independently, performing at open mics with her friend and uploading hilarious (and distinctly) bizarre skits digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted characters fetishistically drawn to having babies; another portrayed being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being caught in a horror film. By chance, she met Seligman through the university’s film scene and ultimately starring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a religious event with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her journey, she says, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, rather than established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, continuing with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Rising Success
Anyone who had doubts regarding her then will likely be regretting it currently. As part of she labels a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she has created her dream vehicle. In 2019 she shared a video called “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a series about city dwellers balancing benefits of online celebrity (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being labeled as being a substance-abusing criminal, and potentially becoming a risky outcast). Some could easy to create a series about internet celebrity that was overly aspirational—or, worse, one that belittled at its subjects. This show avoids both, creating a portrait of affluent young adult living that’s frank about the mess 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 comments. “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
