Rachel Sennott enters the digital interview and right away begins an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, seeming really regretful. Despite being only a couple of minutes delayed, she needs to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Fortunately, for a writer, this is exactly what you want to encounter. Additionally, it’s pretty unsurprising. Anyone who have seen her unapologetically queer and brash project Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with the director and appeared in alongside collaborator The Bear’s standout—would be aware that Sennott holds plenty to share, whether on gender, relationships, or the pros of forming a teen fight club. Plus, by the end her latest multi-episode show titled I Love LA, viewers realize that the star has even more insights regarding the struggles of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, she serves as an honorary member for this generation, on the cusp skilled for bridging both generations).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and Sennott admits to being a fan, naming it alongside the HBO hit, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as influences for I Love LA, which details the journey of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion and aspiring talent manager Maia. However, the most significant influence on the moodboard was reserved for the popular sitcom, that HBO sitcom focusing on an up-and-coming celebrity navigating in a gritty entertainment industry (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She began viewing it amid the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and chose to put her own twist on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she explains. The concept for this project emerged—partly—from personal, at first rocky, relocation to LA and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about phenomenon for astrology heads. It was a time that included her understand significant truths, professionally and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Starting Out
Brought up in the East Coast, the star began developing and showcasing comedy while studying theatre at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She decided to act independently, appearing at live shows with her friend and posting hilarious (and very) bizarre comedy videos digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on several females fetishistically obsessed with having babies; a different one imagined being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being trapped in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Emma through campus film circles and ended up starring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her journey, she says, has been peers giving her a shot, instead of established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, stating with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who questioned about her then will certainly be feeling foolish now. Through she describes as a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she appears to achieved the perfect project. In 2019 she uploaded a video titled about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a show about Angelenos balancing benefits of internet fame (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your associate being suspected of being a intoxicated thief, and possibly becoming a risky persona non grata). It would be tempting to produce a series about online fame that was horribly glamorous—or, worse, one that belittled at its subjects. This show steers clear of each, creating a representation of privileged millennial life that’s frank about the mess and the shine.
Empathetic Approach
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” 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
