Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and right away launches into an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, seeming truly regretful. Despite being only a bit behind, she wants to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, in this context, that’s exactly what you want to hear. Moreover, it’s fairly expected. Those familiar with her fearlessly openly gay and outspoken film Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with Emma Seligman and featured in alongside collaborator The Bear’s standout—will be aware that she possesses plenty to discuss, be it on roles, sex, or the appeal of creating a youth combat group. Plus, by the end her recent eight-part program I Love LA, viewers realize that she carries further perspectives regarding the darker side of modern youth (At 30, she is a relatable figure for this generation, straddling eras with a knack for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott admits to being an admirer, citing the show in addition to the HBO hit, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for her series, which follows the struggles of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also new agent Sennott’s character. However, the most significant presence on creative vision belonged to Entourage, the program about an emerging A-list actor succeeding in an often-seedy Hollywood (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She began viewing it amid COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and resolved to add a fresh perspective on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she notes. The idea for the series emerged—to some extent—from personal, initially fractious, relocation to LA and from her astrological phase, a popular event for astrology heads. That period marked a time that involved her understand significant life lessons, in her career and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Early Beginnings
Raised in Connecticut, the star started creating and acting humor while studying theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “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.”
She took matters into her own hands, appearing at live shows with Ayo and posting hilarious (and very) unconventional comedy videos on the internet. One, Baby Cult, followed characters intensely drawn to pregnancy; another portrayed working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being caught in a horror film. Interestingly, she encountered Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ultimately featuring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a religious event with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her path, she explains, has been peers offering opportunities, as opposed to traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, adding amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who had doubts regarding Sennott previously will certainly be feeling foolish currently. In what she describes as a “wild, full-circle” story, she appears to manifested her dream vehicle. Previously she posted a clip named “it’s LA” online, in which she parodied movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a show about Angelenos balancing advantages of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being suspected of being a substance-abusing thief, and perhaps becoming a unreliable persona non grata). It would be tempting to create a show about internet celebrity that was horribly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that punched down at its subjects. This show does neither, creating a depiction of advantaged young adult life that’s honest about the mess and the appeal.
Balanced Perspective
“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
