Rachel Sennott joins the video call and at once starts an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, sounding genuinely remorseful. Despite being only a bit delayed, she wants to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, in this context, this is precisely what one hopes to hear. Additionally, it’s fairly unsurprising. Viewers who have seen her boldly queer and brash movie Bottoms—which she co-wrote with Emma Seligman and appeared in together with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—would already know that she possesses much to say, ranging from about gender, sex, or the pros of forming a high-school fight club. Plus, once you finish the new seasonal show I Love LA, it is clear that she carries further perspectives on the darker side of young adulthood (As a millennial, she is a relatable figure to younger audiences, on the cusp skilled for connecting different age groups).
Influences and Artistic Direction
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott readily acknowledges an admirer, referencing the show together with Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as influences for I Love LA, which follows the travails of online personality Tallulah and close companion who is also fledgling talent manager Sennott’s character. Notably, the largest presence on the moodboard belonged to the popular sitcom, that HBO sitcom focusing on a rising Hollywood star succeeding in a gritty Hollywood (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She began viewing it amid the pandemic, became “captivated”, and resolved to put her own twist on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The inspiration for this project emerged—in part—from her own, initially rocky, relocation to Tinseltown and from the astrological phase, a popular event for enthusiasts. That period marked an era that saw her learn major life lessons, work-wise and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Humble Origins
Raised in the East Coast, the star began writing and performing humor while pursuing theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She decided to act independently, performing at live shows with Edebiri and sharing hysterical (and decidedly) unconventional skits online. One, Baby Cult, depicted several females obsessively obsessed with having babies; another portrayed being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being stuck in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Seligman through campus film circles and eventually starring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a Jewish wake with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her career, she says, has been people her own age giving her a shot, instead of the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, continuing humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Individuals who had doubts about her previously will certainly be kicking themselves currently. In what she calls a “wild, full-circle” development, she seems to have achieved the perfect project. Previously she posted content called “it’s LA” on social media, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a show about LA residents managing benefits of digital stardom (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being suspected of being a drug-addled thief, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). It would be simple to create a series about digital influence that was extremely idealized—or, more problematic, one that mocked at those depicted. This show avoids both, creating a portrait of advantaged twentysomething existence that’s honest about the chaos and the glamour.
Empathetic Approach
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
