Rachel Sennott appears on the digital interview and right away begins an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, appearing genuinely regretful. Although she's only a bit delayed, she wants to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, during an interview, that’s precisely what you want to encounter. Besides, it’s fairly unsurprising. Anyone who know her fearlessly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—which Sennott penned with Emma Seligman and featured in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—will understand that she has much to discuss, whether on roles, relationships, or the appeal of creating a teen fight club. Plus, once you finish her latest multi-episode show titled I Love LA, it is clear that she has further thoughts regarding the challenges of Gen Z life (At 30, she serves as a bridge for this generation, a tale-end millennial skilled for bridging both generations).
Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott is enthusiastic, referencing the show in addition to Sex and the City, Insecure and Atlanta as inspirations for the project, which follows the struggles of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also new representative Maia. Notably, the most significant influence on the moodboard went to Entourage, that show about a rising A-list actor making his way in a gritty LA scene (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She started watching it throughout lockdown, became “hooked”, and resolved to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she explains. The inspiration for I Love LA emerged—in part—from her own, initially fractious, move to Los Angeles and from her saturn return, a much-talked-about phenomenon for followers. This represented a phase that saw her learn significant insights, in her career and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Starting Out
Growing up in New England, Sennott commenced creating and acting humor while enrolled in performance at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
She seized control, performing at live shows with her friend and uploading hilarious (and very) weird online content online. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women fetishistically fixated on having babies; a different one portrayed working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being trapped in a thriller. Interestingly, she connected with Seligman through the university’s film scene and ultimately featuring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a religious event with echoes of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her career, she notes, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, instead of traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, adding amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Manifesting Dreams
Individuals who were skeptical about Sennott then will likely be regretting it now. As part of she describes as a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she seems to have created the perfect project. In 2019 she uploaded content called “it’s LA” online, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a comedy about Angelenos balancing advantages of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your client being labeled as being a intoxicated stealer, and perhaps becoming a risky pariah). It would be easy to create a series about online fame that was overly aspirational—or, more problematic, one that mocked at the characters. The series does neither, making for a depiction of advantaged millennial life that’s frank about the grot and the appeal.
Empathetic Approach
“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
