Rachel Sennott enters the video call and immediately begins an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, appearing truly remorseful. She is only a couple of minutes delayed, she wants to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, during an interview, that’s precisely what you want to experience. Moreover, it’s quite predictable. Viewers who have seen the fearlessly openly gay and outspoken film titled Bottoms—that she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and appeared in together with her friend the talented actress—will already know that she has a lot to discuss, ranging from on roles, sex, or the pros of creating a teen fight club. Plus, after watching her new multi-episode show I Love LA, it is clear that the star has further perspectives regarding the challenges of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott represents a bridge to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial with a knack for connecting both generations).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and the actress admits to being a fan, referencing it alongside Sex and the City, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as guides for I Love LA, which follows the struggles of online personality Tallulah and her friend and aspiring agent portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the most significant influence on creative vision belonged to Entourage, that HBO sitcom focusing on a rising Hollywood star navigating in an often-seedy entertainment industry (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott started watching it throughout COVID-19, became “hooked”, and chose to put her own twist on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she explains. The concept for I Love LA emerged—in part—from firsthand, originally rocky, move to LA and from the saturn return, a frequently discussed occurrence for followers. This represented a time that involved her understand significant insights, work-wise and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Starting Out
Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott began writing and performing comedy while pursuing acting at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She took matters into her own hands, appearing at live shows with Ayo and uploading uproarious (and decidedly) bizarre comedy videos online. One, Baby Cult, followed a group of women fetishistically obsessed with motherhood; another portrayed being employed at the brand Hollister as similar to being caught in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she met Emma through the university’s film scene and ultimately featuring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a Jewish wake with shades of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her journey, she says, has been peers offering opportunities, rather than established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she confirms, continuing amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who had doubts about her previously will certainly be regretting it today. Through she describes as a “astonishingly complete” development, she appears to achieved her dream vehicle. Previously she posted a video called about Los Angeles online, in which she lampooned film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a show about Angelenos juggling benefits of digital stardom (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being labeled as being a intoxicated thief, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). One might simple to create a show about digital influence that was extremely aspirational—or, more problematic, one that mocked at its subjects. The series does neither, resulting in a representation of privileged young adult existence that’s honest about the grot and the glamour.
Balanced Perspective
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
