Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and immediately starts an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, sounding genuinely remorseful. She is only a couple of minutes late, she feels compelled 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 precisely what is ideal to hear. Additionally, it’s pretty predictable. Viewers familiar with the unapologetically queer and outspoken movie Bottoms—which she co-wrote with Emma Seligman and appeared in alongside close companion The Bear’s standout—would already know that she has plenty to discuss, be it about roles, intimacy, or the pros of starting a teen fight club. And, by the end the recent multi-episode program titled I Love LA, viewers realize that the star holds further thoughts about the darker side of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, Sennott represents a bridge to younger audiences, straddling eras skilled for straddling both generations).
Influences and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and the actress readily acknowledges an admirer, citing it in addition to Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for her series, which follows the struggles of an influencer Tallulah and close companion who is also fledgling talent manager Maia. Perhaps, the most significant presence on the moodboard was reserved for Entourage, that HBO sitcom depicting a rising A-list actor making his way in a corrupt LA scene (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott started watching it throughout lockdown, became “captivated”, and decided to create a new version 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 explains. The inspiration for I Love LA emerged—in part—from her own, originally difficult, transition to Los Angeles and from the cosmic event, a popular phenomenon for astrology heads. It was a time that saw her understand some big insights, professionally and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “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…”
Starting Out
Brought up in New England, the star commenced creating and acting humor while enrolled in performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott decided to act independently, performing at amateur nights with Ayo and posting hysterical (and decidedly) bizarre skits digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed a group of women obsessively fixated on pregnancy; a different one envisioned being employed at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being trapped in a scary movie. Interestingly, she met Seligman through campus film circles and eventually starring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a religious event with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her career, she explains, has been peers offering opportunities, instead of established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, adding amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who questioned regarding her previously will certainly be feeling foolish currently. Through she labels a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she seems to have manifested an ideal role. In 2019 she shared content titled 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 show about LA residents balancing advantages of online celebrity (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being suspected of being a intoxicated criminal, and potentially becoming a unreliable outcast). Some could simple to produce a show about online fame that was overly aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at its subjects. I Love LA steers clear of each, making for a portrait of privileged twentysomething existence that’s frank about the mess and the appeal.
Empathetic Approach
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
