Rachel Sennott appears on the video call and at once starts an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, seeming truly remorseful. She is only a couple of minutes late, she wants to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, in this context, that’s exactly what you want to hear. Additionally, it’s fairly predictable. Viewers who have seen the unapologetically openly gay and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—which Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and appeared in together with collaborator The Bear’s standout—will already know that Sennott has plenty to say, ranging from on gender, sex, or the pros of starting a youth brawl society. Plus, by the end her latest seasonal show titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she has additional thoughts about the struggles of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott represents an honorary member to younger audiences, on the cusp with a knack for bridging different age groups).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and the actress admits to being enthusiastic, citing it together with the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as guides for I Love LA, which tracks the journey of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also fledgling talent manager portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the largest spot on concept was reserved for the popular sitcom, the program depicting a rising celebrity navigating in a gritty Hollywood (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She began viewing it during the pandemic, became “hooked”, and decided to put her own twist 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 idea for the series came—partly—from her own, initially difficult, move to LA and from her cosmic event, a popular occurrence for astrology heads. This represented an era that saw her grasp major truths, in her career and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Humble Origins
Brought up in New England, Sennott started creating and acting stand-up while enrolled in theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She took matters into her own hands, performing at amateur nights with Ayo and posting hysterical (and very) weird skits digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted a group of women fetishistically drawn to motherhood; another imagined being employed at the brand Hollister as akin to being caught in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Seligman through campus film circles and ended up starring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a religious event with hints of the intense thriller. The central motif of her path, she explains, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, instead of the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, continuing with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Anyone who were skeptical regarding Sennott earlier will surely be regretting it today. As part of she labels a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she seems to have created an ideal role. A few years back she uploaded a clip titled on LA life on social media, in which she mocked film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a show about city dwellers balancing advantages of internet fame (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your associate being suspected of being a drug-addled thief, and possibly becoming a unreliable outcast). It would be simple to produce a show about digital influence that was horribly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at those depicted. This show does neither, making for a portrait of affluent twentysomething life that’s frank about the mess and the appeal.
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 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
