Rachel Sennott joins the online meeting and at once launches into an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, sounding really apologetic. Although she's only a couple of minutes late, she feels compelled to justify. “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 just what one hopes to hear. Additionally, it’s quite unsurprising. Viewers familiar with the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and brash project Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with the director and appeared in alongside close companion The Bear’s standout—can understand that Sennott possesses a lot to say, whether on identity, relationships, or the merits of creating a teen fight club. Plus, after watching the recent eight-part program I Love LA, it is clear that she holds further insights on the struggles of young adulthood (As a millennial, Sennott represents a bridge to younger audiences, on the cusp with a knack for straddling both generations).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
Parallels to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress admits to being an admirer, citing the show together with the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as influences for the project, which tracks the struggles of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also new agent Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the biggest influence on concept was reserved for the HBO series, the show about an up-and-coming celebrity navigating in a gritty entertainment industry (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott discovered it amid the pandemic, became “captivated”, and resolved to add a fresh perspective on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she notes. The concept for the series emerged—partly—from her own, at first difficult, relocation to Tinseltown and from the saturn return, a frequently discussed phenomenon for enthusiasts. This represented a time that included her grasp significant insights, work-wise and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Starting Out
Growing up in New England, the star commenced developing and showcasing comedy while pursuing theatre 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 states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She took matters into her own hands, appearing at amateur nights with Ayo and uploading hysterical (and decidedly) unconventional comedy videos on the internet. One, Baby Cult, centered on a group of women intensely drawn to pregnancy; another envisioned being employed at the brand Hollister as similar to being caught in a thriller. By chance, she connected with Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up starring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a religious event with echoes of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her journey, she says, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, as opposed to the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, adding with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who questioned about Sennott previously will surely be feeling foolish currently. In what she describes as a “incredibly circular” story, she seems to have achieved the perfect project. A few years back she shared a video named on LA life on social media, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about Angelenos juggling advantages of online celebrity (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being labeled as being a substance-abusing criminal, and potentially becoming a risky outcast). It would be easy to produce a series about internet celebrity that was overly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that punched down at those depicted. I Love LA steers clear of each, creating a portrait of affluent millennial life that’s frank about the grot and the shine.
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
