Rachel Sennott joins the digital interview and immediately launches into an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, sounding genuinely regretful. She is only a bit behind, she needs to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, during an interview, that’s precisely what you want to experience. Additionally, it’s quite predictable. Those who have seen the boldly openly gay and outspoken movie titled Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with Emma Seligman and featured in alongside collaborator the talented actress—would be aware that Sennott has much to say, be it on gender, relationships, or the appeal of starting a high-school combat group. And, after watching her new seasonal HBO series I Love LA, viewers realize that she holds even more insights about the struggles of young adulthood (At 30, she represents an honorary member to younger audiences, straddling eras skilled for connecting both generations).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott readily acknowledges an admirer, citing it together with the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as influences for the project, which follows the travails of an influencer Tallulah and ally and fledgling representative Maia. Notably, the most significant presence on the moodboard went to Entourage, the HBO sitcom focusing on an up-and-coming celebrity making his way in a corrupt Hollywood (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it during lockdown, became “captivated”, and decided to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she says. The concept for I Love LA came—in part—from personal, at first difficult, transition to Los Angeles and from her astrological phase, a popular phenomenon for followers. That period marked a phase that included her learn some big insights, work-wise and in private life. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Early Beginnings
Raised in Connecticut, Sennott commenced writing and performing stand-up while studying theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” 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 took matters into her own hands, performing at amateur nights with her friend and uploading hilarious (and very) unconventional comedy videos digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women intensely fixated on pregnancy; another envisioned being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being caught in a scary movie. Interestingly, she met Emma through the university’s film scene and ended up starring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the intense thriller. The big theme of her journey, she notes, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, as opposed to established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, stating with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who questioned about her previously will surely be regretting it currently. Through she labels a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she has manifested an ideal role. In 2019 she posted content titled on LA life on the internet, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a show about Angelenos balancing advantages of online celebrity (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being labeled as being a drug-addled criminal, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). One might simple to produce a show about digital influence that was extremely glamorous—or, worse, one that punched down at those depicted. This show steers clear of each, resulting in a depiction of privileged millennial existence that’s honest 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
