Rachel Sennott appears on the digital interview and at once starts an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, appearing truly apologetic. Despite being only slightly behind, she needs to justify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s just what one hopes to experience. Additionally, it’s fairly unsurprising. Viewers familiar with the boldly LGBTQ+ and outspoken movie Bottoms—that she collaborated on with the director and appeared in together with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—would understand that she possesses much to discuss, whether on roles, intimacy, or the merits of creating a teen brawl society. And, once you finish the new eight-part program titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she holds further insights regarding the darker side of Gen Z life (As a millennial, she represents an honorary member to younger audiences, straddling eras skilled for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and Sennott readily acknowledges enthusiastic, referencing it together with the classic series, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for her series, which details the travails of an influencer Tallulah and close companion who is also aspiring agent portrayed by Sennott. However, the most significant influence on the moodboard was reserved for the popular sitcom, that HBO sitcom depicting an up-and-coming Hollywood star succeeding in a corrupt Hollywood (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She discovered it amid the pandemic, became “captivated”, and resolved to put her own twist 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 originated—to some extent—from firsthand, originally rocky, relocation to Tinseltown and from her astrological phase, a popular phenomenon for astrology heads. It was an era that saw her grasp major life lessons, work-wise and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Starting Out
Brought up in Connecticut, the star began developing and showcasing comedy while enrolled in theatre at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “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 took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at amateur nights with Edebiri and uploading uproarious (and very) unconventional comedy videos digitally. One, Baby Cult, centered on a group of women obsessively obsessed with having babies; a different one imagined being employed at the brand Hollister as akin to being trapped in a horror film. By chance, she met Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up featuring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a religious event with shades of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her path, she notes, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, as opposed to traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, adding amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who were skeptical regarding her earlier will certainly be regretting it currently. In what she labels a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she seems to have achieved the perfect project. In 2019 she shared content called about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a series about LA residents managing advantages of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your client being suspected of being a drug-addled thief, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). It would be simple to make a program about online fame that was overly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that mocked at its subjects. This show does neither, creating a representation of affluent young adult living that’s candid about the chaos and the shine.
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
