Rachel Sennott on her hilarious show depicting that messy glamour of younger generation life
Rachel Sennott enters the video call and right away launches into an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, seeming truly remorseful. She is only a couple of minutes delayed, she needs to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, in this context, that’s just what one hopes to experience. Additionally, it’s quite predictable. Viewers who know her unapologetically openly gay and outspoken project Bottoms—that she co-wrote with her creative partner and appeared in alongside collaborator the talented actress—can understand that she holds a lot to discuss, be it about gender, sex, or the appeal of creating a high-school brawl society. Plus, after watching the recent eight-part program titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries even more thoughts on the darker side of young adulthood (At 30, Sennott serves as a relatable figure to younger audiences, straddling eras adept for straddling both generations).
Influences and Creative Vision
Parallels to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and Sennott admits to being an admirer, referencing the show alongside Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as inspirations for her series, which follows the travails of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also aspiring talent manager Maia. However, the most significant influence on the moodboard went to the HBO series, that program focusing on an emerging Hollywood star succeeding in a gritty LA scene (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott began viewing it throughout COVID-19, became “captivated”, and decided to put her own twist on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The inspiration for I Love LA originated—partly—from firsthand, at first difficult, relocation to Tinseltown and from her astrological phase, a popular event for followers. This represented an era that involved her grasp significant insights, in her career and in private life. “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 …”
Humble Origins
Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott commenced creating and acting humor while pursuing theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, performing at open mics with Ayo and uploading uproarious (and very) unconventional skits digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on several females obsessively fixated on having babies; a different one portrayed working at a trendy retail outlet as like being trapped in a scary movie. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and ultimately featuring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a religious event with shades of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her career, she says, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, rather than the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, continuing with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Individuals who had doubts about Sennott earlier will certainly be feeling foolish now. Through she labels a “incredibly circular” story, she appears to manifested the perfect project. In 2019 she uploaded a video titled on LA life online, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a show about city dwellers managing benefits of internet fame (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being suspected of being a intoxicated criminal, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). It would be simple to create a show about internet celebrity that was overly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at those depicted. The series does neither, creating a depiction of privileged twentysomething living that’s honest about the chaos and the appeal.
Balanced Perspective
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” 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