Rachel Sennott enters the digital interview and at once launches into an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, seeming truly remorseful. Although she's only a bit delayed, she feels compelled to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, for a writer, this is precisely what you want to encounter. Besides, it’s pretty predictable. Those familiar with her boldly openly gay and outspoken movie titled Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with the director and featured in with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—will already know that she holds much to say, be it about identity, relationships, or the merits of forming a high-school combat group. And, after watching her recent multi-episode show titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she carries additional perspectives on the struggles of modern youth (As a millennial, she serves as a bridge for this generation, straddling eras adept for bridging both generations).
Influences and Creative Vision
Parallels to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and Sennott admits to being a fan, citing it alongside Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as guides for her series, which follows the struggles of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also new representative portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the most significant spot on creative vision was reserved for Entourage, that show about an emerging Hollywood star succeeding in a corrupt LA scene (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott started watching it amid COVID-19, became “captivated”, and resolved to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she says. The idea for the series came—partly—from personal, at first difficult, relocation to LA and from the astrological phase, a popular occurrence for astrology heads. That period marked a time that included her grasp significant insights, work-wise and in private life. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she admits. “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…”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in the East Coast, the star started creating and acting humor while pursuing acting at NYU’s Tisch. “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. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at live shows with her friend and uploading hysterical (and distinctly) unconventional online content on the internet. One, Baby Cult, followed a group of women fetishistically drawn to pregnancy; a different one imagined working at a trendy retail outlet as like being stuck in a horror film. By chance, she connected with Emma through the university’s film scene and eventually appearing in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her path, she notes, has been people her own age offering opportunities, as opposed to traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, continuing with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Individuals who had doubts regarding her then will certainly be feeling foolish currently. Through she describes as a “incredibly circular” story, she seems to have created the perfect project. In 2019 she posted content named about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a comedy about Angelenos managing advantages of internet fame (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being suspected of being a substance-abusing stealer, and perhaps becoming a unreliable pariah). It would be easy to create a program about online fame that was overly aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at those depicted. This show avoids both, creating a depiction of advantaged twentysomething life that’s honest about the grot and the glamour.
Balanced Perspective
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
