Rachel Sennott enters the video call and right away launches into an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, appearing really regretful. Despite being only a bit delayed, she wants to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, in this context, this is precisely what is ideal to experience. Moreover, it’s quite expected. Viewers familiar with her unapologetically openly gay and unapologetically crass film Bottoms—which Sennott penned with the director and starred in alongside collaborator Ayo Edebiri—will understand that she possesses much to share, be it about gender, relationships, or the merits of forming a teen combat group. Furthermore, after watching her new multi-episode show I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star carries additional insights on the darker side of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott is an honorary member of the gang, a tale-end millennial adept for connecting different age groups).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and the actress admits to being a fan, citing it together with the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as guides for I Love LA, which follows the travails of online personality Tallulah and her friend and aspiring representative portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the biggest influence on the moodboard was reserved for the HBO series, that HBO sitcom about a rising Hollywood star navigating in an often-seedy entertainment industry (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott discovered it throughout lockdown, became “obsessed”, and chose 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 notes. The idea for the series originated—partly—from personal, initially difficult, relocation to Los Angeles and from her cosmic event, a popular event for followers. It was an era that included her grasp some big truths, in her career and in private life. “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…”
Starting Out
Raised in New England, Sennott started writing and performing comedy while enrolled in acting at NYU’s Tisch. “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. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott decided to act independently, taking the stage at open mics with Edebiri and posting hilarious (and distinctly) weird skits on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, followed characters fetishistically drawn to pregnancy; another envisioned working at the brand Hollister as like being stuck in a scary movie. Interestingly, she connected with Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up featuring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a funeral gathering with hints of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her journey, she notes, has been people her own age giving her a shot, rather than established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she repeats, stating amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Individuals who questioned regarding her earlier will certainly be regretting it now. Through she calls a “wild, full-circle” story, she has created an ideal role. Previously she uploaded a clip called about Los Angeles on social media, in which she lampooned film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a comedy about LA residents managing benefits of internet fame (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being labeled as being a drug-addled criminal, and perhaps becoming a unreliable outcast). Some could tempting to make a program about internet celebrity that was horribly aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at the characters. I Love LA does neither, making for a representation of advantaged millennial life that’s honest about the mess and the appeal.
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 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
