Rachel Sennott enters the digital interview and right away launches into an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, appearing truly remorseful. Although she's only a bit delayed, she needs 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, this is exactly what you want to experience. Besides, it’s quite unsurprising. Anyone who have seen her fearlessly openly gay and unapologetically crass project titled Bottoms—which she co-wrote with her creative partner and starred in together with close companion The Bear’s standout—will already know that Sennott has plenty to say, be it on gender, sex, or the merits of starting a high-school brawl society. And, once you finish the recent eight-part show I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star carries even more thoughts regarding the darker side of young adulthood (At 30, she serves as an honorary member to younger audiences, straddling eras adept for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and the actress readily acknowledges a fan, naming the show in addition to the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as inspirations for I Love LA, which follows the journey of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also aspiring representative portrayed by Sennott. However, the most significant spot on creative vision belonged to the HBO series, that program focusing on an emerging A-list actor succeeding in a gritty Hollywood (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott discovered it throughout COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and decided to add a fresh perspective on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she notes. The inspiration for I Love LA came—to some extent—from firsthand, at first difficult, transition to LA and from her cosmic event, a frequently discussed event for followers. This represented an era that involved her learn major life lessons, in her career and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Humble Origins
Growing up in New England, Sennott started writing and performing stand-up while studying performance at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” 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. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She seized control, appearing at live shows with her friend and uploading hysterical (and decidedly) bizarre online content online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted a group of women fetishistically drawn to motherhood; a different one portrayed being employed at the brand Hollister as like being trapped in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she met Seligman through the university’s film scene and ended up starring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a religious event with hints of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her journey, she notes, has been peers offering opportunities, instead of the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, stating amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Anyone who had doubts regarding Sennott then will surely be regretting it today. In what she describes as a “incredibly circular” development, she seems to have manifested the perfect project. In 2019 she shared a video called on LA life on the internet, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a comedy about Angelenos managing benefits of internet fame (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being labeled as being a substance-abusing criminal, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). Some could simple to make a program about internet celebrity that was horribly idealized—or, worse, one that mocked at those depicted. I Love LA avoids both, resulting in a depiction of privileged twentysomething living that’s honest about the grot and the appeal.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” she observes. “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
