Rachel Sennott appears on the digital interview and at once launches into an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, sounding genuinely apologetic. She is only slightly delayed, she needs to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, in this context, that’s precisely what is ideal to experience. Moreover, it’s quite expected. Viewers familiar with the fearlessly LGBTQ+ and brash project titled Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and featured in with close companion The Bear’s standout—would be aware that she has a lot to say, whether about roles, intimacy, or the appeal of forming a youth brawl society. Plus, by the end her new seasonal show titled I Love LA, it is clear that she carries even more insights on the darker side of modern youth (As a millennial, she is a bridge of the gang, a tale-end millennial adept for bridging both generations).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
Parallels to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and the actress readily acknowledges an admirer, naming it alongside the classic series, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as guides for I Love LA, which details the struggles of a social media star Tallulah and her friend who is also fledgling talent manager Maia. Perhaps, the biggest spot on creative vision went to Entourage, the program depicting an emerging A-list actor navigating in a gritty Hollywood (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott began viewing it amid COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and resolved to create a new version 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 inspiration for this project emerged—in part—from personal, initially fractious, move to LA and from the astrological phase, a frequently discussed phenomenon for enthusiasts. This represented a time that saw her understand some big truths, work-wise and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Starting Out
Brought up in the East Coast, Sennott started developing and showcasing humor while studying theatre at a prestigious arts school. “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.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott seized control, taking the stage at open mics with Ayo and uploading hilarious (and distinctly) unconventional skits online. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed several females obsessively drawn to pregnancy; another envisioned working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being caught in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ultimately featuring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a religious event with echoes of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her path, she explains, has been peers offering opportunities, instead of the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, continuing humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who had doubts about her earlier will surely be kicking themselves today. As part of she labels a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she seems to have created her dream vehicle. Previously she posted a video named “it’s LA” on social media, in which she parodied film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about city dwellers managing advantages of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being suspected of being a substance-abusing criminal, and possibly becoming a unreliable outcast). One might tempting to produce a series about digital influence that was horribly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at its subjects. I Love LA does neither, resulting in a depiction of advantaged twentysomething existence that’s honest about the grot and the glamour.
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 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
