Rachel Sennott appears on the video call and immediately starts an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, appearing truly remorseful. Despite being only a couple of minutes delayed, she wants to explain. “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!” Luckily, for a writer, this is just what one hopes to hear. Moreover, it’s quite predictable. Those who know the fearlessly openly gay and brash project Bottoms—that she penned with Emma Seligman and featured in alongside collaborator the talented actress—can be aware that Sennott holds plenty to discuss, ranging from about identity, relationships, or the appeal of creating a youth fight club. And, once you finish her new multi-episode HBO series I Love LA, viewers realize that she holds additional thoughts about the darker side of Gen Z life (As a millennial, she serves as a bridge to younger audiences, straddling eras with a knack for bridging both generations).
Influences and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and the actress readily acknowledges a fan, naming the show together with Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for her series, which details the travails of online personality Tallulah and her friend who is also new talent manager Maia. However, the biggest presence on the moodboard went to the popular sitcom, the show focusing on a rising celebrity succeeding in a gritty Hollywood (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She started watching it during COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and decided to put her own twist 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 explains. The concept for this project emerged—partly—from personal, at first fractious, move to Los Angeles and from her cosmic event, a much-talked-about phenomenon for followers. It was an era that saw her learn some big truths, professionally and individually. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she says. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Early Beginnings
Raised in New England, Sennott commenced developing and showcasing stand-up while enrolled in performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, appearing at amateur nights with Edebiri and uploading uproarious (and decidedly) unconventional online content digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted characters obsessively obsessed with motherhood; another envisioned being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being stuck in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she met Seligman through the university’s film scene and ended up featuring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her career, she notes, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, instead of the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, stating amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Individuals who were skeptical about Sennott previously will certainly be regretting it currently. As part of she calls a “astonishingly complete” development, she appears to created an ideal role. A few years back she uploaded a video named about Los Angeles on social media, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a show about Angelenos managing advantages of online celebrity (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your associate being accused of being a drug-addled stealer, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). Some could simple to make a series about internet celebrity that was overly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that mocked at the characters. I Love LA does neither, making for a representation of privileged millennial living that’s honest about the mess 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
