Rachel Sennott joins the video call and at once starts an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, sounding genuinely remorseful. Although she's only a couple of minutes delayed, she wants to justify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Fortunately, in this context, that’s exactly what is ideal to encounter. Moreover, it’s fairly predictable. Those who have seen the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and outspoken film titled Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with her creative partner and starred in alongside close companion the talented actress—would understand that Sennott possesses plenty to discuss, be it about identity, relationships, or the merits of starting a high-school combat group. And, by the end the latest multi-episode HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that she carries further perspectives about the darker side of modern youth (Now in her thirties, Sennott is an honorary member to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial skilled for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and Sennott is a fan, citing the show alongside the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as guides for the project, which details the struggles of online personality Tallulah and her friend and fledgling talent manager Maia. However, the largest influence on creative vision went to the HBO series, the HBO sitcom about a rising celebrity succeeding in a corrupt Hollywood (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She discovered it amid the pandemic, became “hooked”, and resolved to add a fresh perspective on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she says. The inspiration for the series came—to some extent—from her own, at first rocky, transition to Los Angeles and from the astrological phase, a frequently discussed event for astrology heads. It was a phase that included her understand major truths, work-wise and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in New England, the star started writing and performing comedy while studying acting at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott decided to act independently, performing at live shows with her friend and posting hysterical (and decidedly) unconventional online content digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted characters obsessively drawn to motherhood; a different one portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as like being trapped in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Seligman through the university’s film scene and eventually featuring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a religious event with shades of the intense thriller. The central motif of her path, she says, has been contemporaries supporting her, rather than established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she confirms, adding with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who had doubts about Sennott previously will surely be feeling foolish currently. In what she labels a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she has manifested the perfect project. Previously she uploaded a video called on LA life on social media, in which she mocked movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a comedy about LA residents managing benefits of internet fame (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being suspected of being a intoxicated criminal, and perhaps becoming a unreliable pariah). It would be tempting to create a program about online fame that was overly idealized—or, more problematic, one that mocked at the characters. This show steers clear of each, resulting in a portrait of privileged young adult living that’s frank about the chaos and the appeal.
Nuanced Portrayal
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” 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
