Rachel Sennott enters the digital interview and right away begins an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, seeming truly apologetic. Although she's only slightly delayed, she wants to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, in this context, this is exactly what is ideal to experience. Besides, it’s fairly expected. Viewers familiar with the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and outspoken movie Bottoms—which Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and featured in alongside collaborator the talented actress—can understand that Sennott possesses plenty to share, be it on identity, sex, or the merits of starting a youth brawl society. Furthermore, after watching her recent multi-episode HBO series titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star carries additional insights on the struggles of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott is a bridge for this generation, straddling eras with a knack for bridging different age groups).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
Parallels to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and the actress admits to being an admirer, naming it together with the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as guides for her series, which follows the journey of a social media star Tallulah and ally and fledgling agent portrayed by Sennott. However, the most significant influence on concept went to the HBO series, the show depicting an up-and-coming celebrity navigating in a corrupt Hollywood (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it amid the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and decided 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 I Love LA came—in part—from her own, originally difficult, move to Los Angeles and from the cosmic event, a frequently discussed phenomenon for astrology heads. That period marked a time that involved her grasp some big insights, in her career 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…”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in Connecticut, the star began developing and showcasing comedy while studying performance at NYU’s Tisch. “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, performing at live shows with her friend and posting hysterical (and decidedly) unconventional online content on the internet. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, followed several females intensely obsessed with motherhood; another portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being stuck in a horror film. Interestingly, she connected with Emma through campus film circles and ultimately appearing in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her career, she says, has been people her own age giving her a shot, as opposed to established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she confirms, stating with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Rising Success
Those who had doubts regarding her then will likely be regretting it now. Through she describes as a “astonishingly complete” development, she seems to have achieved the perfect project. In 2019 she uploaded a clip titled “it’s LA” online, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a comedy about LA residents juggling benefits of internet fame (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being accused of being a substance-abusing thief, and possibly becoming a risky outcast). Some could easy to create a show about internet celebrity that was horribly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at those depicted. I Love LA steers clear of each, creating a depiction of affluent twentysomething living that’s frank about the mess and the glamour.
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
