Rachel Sennott enters the video call and immediately starts an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, sounding genuinely regretful. Despite being only a bit behind, she needs to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, in this context, this is precisely what one hopes to hear. Moreover, it’s fairly unsurprising. Viewers familiar with her fearlessly queer and unapologetically crass project titled Bottoms—that she co-wrote with her creative partner and starred in alongside collaborator Ayo Edebiri—can be aware that Sennott possesses plenty to discuss, ranging from on roles, relationships, or the pros of creating a high-school brawl society. And, once you finish the new eight-part HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries further insights about the challenges of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott is a bridge to younger audiences, on the cusp with a knack for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Creative Vision
Parallels to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott is an admirer, citing it alongside Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as influences for her series, which tracks the travails of online personality Tallulah and her friend and new talent manager Maia. Notably, the most significant presence on concept belonged to the popular sitcom, that HBO sitcom about an up-and-coming A-list actor succeeding in a gritty LA scene (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott discovered it throughout lockdown, became “hooked”, and chose to create a new version on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“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 personal, at first rocky, transition to Tinseltown and from the cosmic event, a much-talked-about phenomenon for enthusiasts. It was a phase that included her learn significant truths, professionally and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Starting Out
Brought up in the East Coast, the star started developing and showcasing humor while pursuing acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” 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 seized control, appearing at open mics with Edebiri and sharing hysterical (and decidedly) bizarre skits online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted characters obsessively fixated on pregnancy; a different one portrayed being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being trapped in a horror film. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and eventually featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a funeral gathering with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her journey, she says, has been people her own age giving her a shot, rather than traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, continuing humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who were skeptical regarding her then will certainly be regretting it currently. Through she describes as a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she appears to achieved an ideal role. In 2019 she posted content named “it’s LA” on social media, in which she mocked film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about LA residents balancing benefits of online celebrity (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being accused of being a intoxicated stealer, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). One might tempting to make a program about digital influence that was extremely glamorous—or, worse, one that punched down at its subjects. I Love LA steers clear of each, creating a depiction of affluent young adult living that’s candid about the grot and the appeal.
Balanced Perspective
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
