Rachel Sennott enters the video call and immediately begins an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, appearing really remorseful. Although she's only slightly late, she feels compelled to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, for a writer, this is precisely what you want to encounter. Besides, it’s quite unsurprising. Anyone familiar with her fearlessly openly gay and unapologetically crass movie Bottoms—that she collaborated on with the director and appeared in with her friend The Bear’s standout—can be aware that Sennott has much to discuss, ranging from about gender, sex, or the merits of creating a high-school brawl society. Plus, once you finish her new seasonal HBO series titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she carries further thoughts about the darker side of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, she represents a bridge for this generation, a tale-end millennial skilled for bridging different age groups).
Influences and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and the actress readily acknowledges an admirer, citing it in addition to the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as inspirations for the project, which follows the travails of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also new agent portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the most significant presence on the moodboard belonged to the popular sitcom, the HBO sitcom focusing on an emerging Hollywood star succeeding in a gritty Hollywood (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She started watching it throughout lockdown, became “captivated”, and decided to create a new version 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 inspiration for the series emerged—to some extent—from personal, at first difficult, transition to Los Angeles and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about occurrence for followers. That period marked an era that saw her understand significant insights, work-wise and in private life. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Humble Origins
Brought up in the East Coast, the star started creating and acting humor while studying 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 explains. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She seized control, taking the stage at open mics with Ayo and sharing hilarious (and distinctly) unconventional online content digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted several females obsessively fixated on having babies; a different one imagined being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being trapped in a horror film. Interestingly, she met Seligman through campus film circles and ultimately appearing in her initial project, Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a religious event with shades of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her career, she says, has been contemporaries supporting her, rather than established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, continuing humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who questioned regarding her then will likely be kicking themselves now. In what she describes as a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she appears to manifested an ideal role. In 2019 she uploaded a video titled “it’s LA” online, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about Angelenos balancing benefits of internet fame (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your associate being accused of being a substance-abusing stealer, and possibly becoming a unreliable outcast). It would be simple to make a program about online fame that was extremely idealized—or, more problematic, one that belittled at the characters. The series avoids both, resulting in a portrait of privileged young adult living that’s honest about the mess and the glamour.
Empathetic Approach
“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
