Rachel Sennott joins the online meeting and right away launches into an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, seeming really remorseful. Although she's only slightly late, she wants to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, for a writer, this is exactly what you want to encounter. Moreover, it’s fairly predictable. Anyone who have seen her fearlessly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass project Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with Emma Seligman and featured in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—will be aware that Sennott has much to share, be it about identity, intimacy, or the pros of creating a teen combat group. Furthermore, after watching her new seasonal show titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries further insights about the darker side of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, she serves as a bridge of the gang, on the cusp skilled for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and the actress admits to being a fan, naming it together with the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as inspirations for her series, which follows the travails of online personality Tallulah and ally who is also fledgling talent manager Sennott’s character. Notably, the biggest influence on creative vision was reserved for the popular sitcom, that HBO sitcom focusing on an emerging Hollywood star succeeding in a corrupt Hollywood (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it amid COVID-19, became “hooked”, and chose to create a new version on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she says. The concept for I Love LA originated—in part—from her own, initially rocky, transition to Los Angeles and from the saturn return, a frequently discussed occurrence for followers. This represented a time that saw her grasp major insights, in her career and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Humble Origins
Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott started developing and showcasing humor while studying performance at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott seized control, performing at amateur nights with her friend and uploading hysterical (and distinctly) weird comedy videos online. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted a group of women intensely fixated on having babies; a different one portrayed working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being stuck in a scary movie. Interestingly, she connected with Emma through the university’s film scene and eventually appearing in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her journey, she notes, has been people her own age offering opportunities, instead of established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, continuing amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who questioned about Sennott previously will likely be feeling foolish now. In what she labels a “wild, full-circle” development, she seems to have created the perfect project. In 2019 she uploaded a clip named “it’s LA” online, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a series about city dwellers juggling the perks of internet fame (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your client being suspected of being a substance-abusing thief, and perhaps becoming a risky outcast). One might tempting to create a program about internet celebrity that was horribly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at those depicted. This show avoids both, creating a depiction of advantaged twentysomething living that’s candid about the mess 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 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
