Rachel Sennott joins the video call and at once starts an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, sounding truly regretful. Despite being only a bit behind, she needs to clarify. “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, in this context, this is just what you want to hear. Moreover, it’s fairly predictable. Viewers familiar with her boldly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass project Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and featured in together with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—will be aware that Sennott holds much to share, be it about gender, intimacy, or the pros of forming a high-school combat group. Plus, by the end her latest multi-episode show I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds even more insights on the darker side of modern youth (As a millennial, she serves as an honorary member for this generation, straddling eras with a knack for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and the actress admits to being an admirer, referencing the show in addition to the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as influences for the project, which tracks the journey of a social media star Tallulah and her friend and new representative Sennott’s character. However, the biggest influence on concept was reserved for the popular sitcom, that show depicting an emerging A-list actor navigating in a gritty LA scene (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She started watching it throughout the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and chose to add a fresh perspective on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she explains. The inspiration for the series came—partly—from firsthand, initially rocky, relocation to Tinseltown and from her saturn return, a much-talked-about occurrence for astrology heads. This represented a time that involved her understand significant truths, professionally and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” 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 commenced developing and showcasing stand-up while pursuing theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she states. “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. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott seized control, appearing at amateur nights with Edebiri and posting hilarious (and decidedly) bizarre online content online. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted a group of women intensely fixated on having babies; a different one imagined being employed at the brand Hollister as akin to being trapped in a scary movie. By chance, she connected with Seligman through campus film circles and eventually starring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a Jewish wake with hints of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her career, she says, has been people her own age supporting her, instead of the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she repeats, stating amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Individuals who questioned regarding her then will surely be kicking themselves today. In what she describes as a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she appears to achieved her dream vehicle. A few years back she uploaded a clip named “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she parodied movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a series about Angelenos juggling the perks of internet fame (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your client being accused of being a drug-addled stealer, and possibly becoming a unreliable persona non grata). One might tempting to produce a show about digital influence that was extremely aspirational—or, worse, one that belittled at those depicted. The series avoids both, making for a portrait of advantaged millennial life that’s candid about the mess and the shine.
Balanced Perspective
“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
