Rachel Sennott appears on the digital interview and immediately starts an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, appearing truly remorseful. Although she's only slightly late, she needs to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, in this context, this is exactly what you want to experience. Moreover, it’s pretty expected. Those who have seen her boldly LGBTQ+ and outspoken film Bottoms—that she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and featured in alongside her friend the talented actress—would understand that Sennott has a lot to share, ranging from on roles, relationships, or the merits of forming a youth brawl society. Furthermore, once you finish the latest multi-episode HBO series titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star has additional insights on the challenges of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott represents an honorary member of the gang, on the cusp skilled for bridging both generations).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and the actress admits to being an admirer, naming the show alongside the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as guides for I Love LA, which details the journey of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also fledgling representative portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the biggest influence on creative vision was reserved for the HBO series, that HBO sitcom about an emerging Hollywood star navigating in an often-seedy entertainment industry (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it during lockdown, became “captivated”, and chose 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 says. The inspiration for the series came—in part—from personal, at first difficult, relocation to LA and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about phenomenon for astrology heads. This represented an era that saw her understand some big life lessons, work-wise and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in New England, Sennott commenced creating and acting stand-up while enrolled in performance at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She seized control, appearing at live shows with Ayo and sharing hysterical (and distinctly) weird skits on the internet. One, Baby Cult, depicted a group of women obsessively drawn to having babies; a different one portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being stuck in a scary movie. By chance, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and ultimately appearing in her initial project, Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a funeral gathering with echoes of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her journey, she says, has been peers supporting her, instead of the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she confirms, stating humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who had doubts about her earlier will likely be regretting it today. As part of she describes as a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she appears to achieved her dream vehicle. In 2019 she uploaded a video named “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a comedy about LA residents balancing advantages of online celebrity (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your client being accused of being a drug-addled thief, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). Some could simple to produce a program about internet celebrity that was horribly idealized—or, more problematic, one that punched down at its subjects. I Love LA does neither, resulting in a depiction of advantaged millennial living that’s honest about the grot and the shine.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
