Rachel Sennott joins the video call and at once launches into an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, seeming truly regretful. Despite being only a couple of minutes late, she feels compelled to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, in this context, that’s precisely what you want to experience. Besides, it’s quite predictable. Viewers who have seen her fearlessly queer and brash movie titled Bottoms—which she penned with her creative partner and starred in alongside close companion Ayo Edebiri—can be aware that she holds plenty to share, ranging from on identity, intimacy, or the pros of creating a teen combat group. Furthermore, by the end the new multi-episode HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds even more insights on the struggles of young adulthood (At 30, she is an honorary member for this generation, straddling eras skilled for straddling different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
Parallels to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress admits to being a fan, citing the show together with the classic series, Insecure and Atlanta as influences for I Love LA, which details the struggles of an influencer Tallulah and ally and fledgling agent portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the biggest spot on creative vision was reserved for the HBO series, that show focusing on an up-and-coming Hollywood star making his way in a corrupt Hollywood (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She discovered it amid lockdown, became “hooked”, and resolved to add a fresh perspective on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she notes. The inspiration for the series came—partly—from firsthand, initially rocky, relocation to Tinseltown and from her astrological phase, a popular phenomenon for enthusiasts. It was an era that included her grasp major life lessons, professionally and in private life. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Starting Out
Growing up in Connecticut, the star started creating and acting humor while pursuing performance at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “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, appearing at amateur nights with Ayo and uploading hilarious (and very) unconventional online content digitally. One, Baby Cult, followed a group of women fetishistically drawn to pregnancy; another imagined being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being caught in a scary movie. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up featuring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a Jewish wake 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, as opposed to established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, continuing amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Anyone who had doubts regarding Sennott previously will certainly be kicking themselves now. Through she labels a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she has created an ideal role. In 2019 she shared a video called on LA life on social media, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a show about Angelenos managing benefits of digital stardom (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your associate being accused of being a drug-addled stealer, and perhaps becoming a unreliable outcast). Some could easy to create a show about internet celebrity that was horribly idealized—or, more problematic, one that belittled at the characters. The series steers clear of each, creating a depiction of privileged 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 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
