Rachel Sennott exploring her uproarious show depicting that grotty glamour of today's youth life
The performer enters the video call and immediately launches into an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, seeming genuinely remorseful. Despite being only slightly delayed, she wants to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, in this context, this is just what is ideal to encounter. Besides, it’s quite predictable. Viewers who have seen the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and brash project Bottoms—that Sennott penned with Emma Seligman and starred in alongside close companion the talented actress—will understand that she has a lot to share, ranging from on roles, relationships, or the pros of forming a teen fight club. Furthermore, after watching her latest eight-part program I Love LA, viewers realize that she has even more thoughts on the darker side of modern youth (At 30, she serves as a bridge for this generation, straddling eras with a knack for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach
Parallels to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and the actress readily acknowledges an admirer, citing it alongside Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as influences for I Love LA, which details the travails of a social media star Tallulah and close companion who is also aspiring talent manager portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the biggest spot on the moodboard belonged to the popular sitcom, the HBO sitcom about an up-and-coming Hollywood star navigating in an often-seedy Hollywood (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott began viewing it throughout lockdown, became “hooked”, 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 emerged—to some extent—from her own, initially fractious, move to LA and from the saturn return, a much-talked-about event for astrology heads. This represented a phase that involved her understand some big truths, work-wise and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she says. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Starting Out
Raised in the East Coast, Sennott started developing and showcasing humor while enrolled in theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She decided to act independently, performing at open mics with Edebiri and posting hysterical (and very) bizarre online content online. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted characters obsessively drawn to pregnancy; another imagined working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being stuck in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and eventually appearing in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a religious event with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her career, she says, has been peers supporting her, instead of the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, continuing with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Individuals who were skeptical regarding Sennott previously will surely be regretting it currently. Through she describes as a “wild, full-circle” development, she appears to created her dream vehicle. Previously she posted a video titled on LA life on social media, in which she mocked film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a show about Angelenos balancing the perks of digital stardom (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being accused of being a intoxicated thief, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). Some could simple to make a series about online fame that was extremely aspirational—or, more problematic, one that belittled at the characters. This show does neither, creating a portrait of advantaged young adult living that’s frank about the mess and the glamour.
Empathetic Approach
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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