Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and at once begins an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, sounding genuinely regretful. She is only slightly behind, she feels compelled to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s exactly what is ideal to experience. Additionally, it’s quite expected. Viewers who have seen her fearlessly queer and outspoken project Bottoms—that she penned with her creative partner and appeared in alongside her friend Ayo Edebiri—will already know that Sennott possesses a lot to share, whether about roles, intimacy, or the merits of creating a high-school fight club. Furthermore, once you finish the latest seasonal show titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she holds additional insights about the darker side of Gen Z life (At 30, she represents an honorary member to younger audiences, on the cusp with a knack for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and the actress is a fan, naming the show alongside the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as guides for the project, which details the struggles of an influencer Tallulah and ally and aspiring representative portrayed by Sennott. However, the largest presence on creative vision belonged to the popular sitcom, the show focusing on an up-and-coming Hollywood star making his way in a corrupt LA scene (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She began viewing it throughout the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and chose to add a fresh perspective on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she notes. The inspiration for the series came—partly—from personal, initially fractious, relocation to Tinseltown and from the saturn return, a much-talked-about event for enthusiasts. It was a phase that saw her learn some big truths, professionally and in private life. “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. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Humble Origins
Brought up in New England, the star commenced writing and performing comedy while pursuing acting at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she explains. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. 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.”
She decided to act independently, appearing at amateur nights with her friend and posting hilarious (and very) weird online content on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women obsessively fixated on having babies; a different one portrayed working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being trapped in a thriller. Interestingly, she connected with Emma through campus film circles and eventually starring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a religious event with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her path, she notes, has been peers offering opportunities, as opposed to traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, continuing with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who had doubts about her earlier will certainly be regretting it now. In what she calls a “wild, full-circle” story, she appears to manifested the perfect project. In 2019 she uploaded content called on LA life on the internet, in which she parodied movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a show about city dwellers managing benefits of internet fame (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being suspected of being a intoxicated criminal, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). Some could simple to create a show about internet celebrity that was extremely idealized—or, more problematic, one that mocked at its subjects. I Love LA steers clear of each, making for a representation of privileged millennial existence that’s frank about the chaos and the shine.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
