Rachel Sennott enters the digital interview and right away starts an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, appearing truly regretful. Although she's only slightly late, she wants to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, during an interview, this is exactly what is ideal to encounter. Besides, it’s quite unsurprising. Viewers who have seen the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and outspoken project titled Bottoms—which she penned with the director and appeared in alongside collaborator Ayo Edebiri—can already know that she holds a lot to share, whether about gender, relationships, or the merits of starting a youth combat group. Plus, once you finish the new seasonal show I Love LA, viewers realize that the star holds further insights on the darker side of modern youth (Now in her thirties, Sennott is a bridge of the gang, a tale-end millennial adept for connecting different age groups).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
Parallels to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress readily acknowledges a fan, naming the show alongside the classic series, Insecure and Atlanta as influences for her series, which follows the struggles of a social media star Tallulah and close companion who is also aspiring talent manager portrayed by Sennott. However, the most significant spot on the moodboard was reserved for the popular sitcom, that program focusing on a rising Hollywood star succeeding in an often-seedy entertainment industry (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She began viewing it amid lockdown, became “hooked”, and resolved to put her own twist on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she notes. The concept for I Love LA emerged—to some extent—from her own, originally rocky, move to Tinseltown and from her saturn return, a popular event for astrology heads. That period marked a phase that included her grasp significant insights, work-wise and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in New England, Sennott began creating and acting humor while studying theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She seized control, appearing at amateur nights with Edebiri and posting uproarious (and decidedly) bizarre comedy videos online. One, Baby Cult, followed a group of women obsessively obsessed with having babies; a different one imagined working at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being caught in a thriller. By chance, she connected with Emma through campus film circles and ended up featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her path, she explains, has been peers giving her a shot, as opposed to traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, adding with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who questioned about her previously will surely be kicking themselves now. In what she describes as a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she appears to achieved her dream vehicle. A few years back she posted content called on LA life on the internet, in which she parodied film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a series about Angelenos balancing advantages of internet fame (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being suspected of being a drug-addled thief, and possibly becoming a risky persona non grata). It would be simple to make a program about online fame that was extremely aspirational—or, more problematic, one that mocked at those depicted. I Love LA avoids both, resulting in a representation of affluent twentysomething life that’s honest about the grot 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
