Rachel Sennott appears on the video call and immediately starts an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, seeming truly regretful. She is only a bit behind, she wants to justify. “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, that’s exactly what you want to experience. Moreover, it’s pretty unsurprising. Anyone who know her unapologetically queer and unapologetically crass film Bottoms—which Sennott penned with Emma Seligman and starred in alongside her friend Ayo Edebiri—would already know that she holds a lot to say, ranging from on identity, intimacy, or the merits of creating a high-school brawl society. Plus, after watching the latest eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star has additional thoughts regarding the challenges of modern youth (As a millennial, Sennott represents a bridge of the gang, straddling eras with a knack for connecting both generations).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and Sennott is an admirer, referencing the show together with the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as guides for the project, which details the travails of online personality Tallulah and ally and fledgling representative Maia. However, the largest spot on creative vision went to Entourage, that program focusing on an up-and-coming Hollywood star navigating in a corrupt LA scene (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott discovered it throughout COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and decided to add a fresh perspective on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The inspiration for I Love LA came—in part—from personal, initially fractious, transition to LA and from the astrological phase, a popular occurrence for astrology heads. This represented a time that included her learn major truths, work-wise and individually. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in Connecticut, the star started creating and acting comedy while studying acting at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott decided to act independently, taking the stage at open mics with Edebiri and posting hilarious (and decidedly) weird online content on the internet. One, Baby Cult, centered on several females fetishistically obsessed with pregnancy; another imagined working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being caught in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she met Emma through campus film circles and eventually featuring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a funeral gathering with hints of the intense thriller. The central motif of her career, she explains, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, as opposed to the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, stating with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Individuals who questioned regarding her then will certainly be regretting it currently. Through she describes as a “wild, full-circle” development, she seems to have created an ideal role. A few years back she uploaded content titled about Los Angeles online, in which she mocked movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a series about LA residents juggling the perks of online celebrity (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being suspected of being a intoxicated criminal, and potentially becoming a unreliable pariah). It would be easy to make a show about online fame that was horribly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at its subjects. This show steers clear of each, creating a portrait of advantaged twentysomething life that’s candid about the mess and the glamour.
Balanced Perspective
“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
