Rachel Sennott appears on the digital interview and right away starts an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, appearing really remorseful. Although she's only a couple of minutes behind, she needs to justify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, for a writer, this is exactly what you want to experience. Besides, it’s fairly unsurprising. Viewers familiar with her fearlessly LGBTQ+ and outspoken project titled Bottoms—that she collaborated on with her creative partner and starred in with close companion the talented actress—can be aware that Sennott holds plenty to share, ranging from on roles, intimacy, or the pros of forming a youth combat group. Plus, after watching the new eight-part program I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star has additional insights about the challenges of modern youth (At 30, she represents a bridge for this generation, straddling eras skilled for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and the actress admits to being an admirer, referencing the show together with the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as influences for her series, which details the struggles of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also fledgling agent portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the most significant spot on the moodboard went to the popular sitcom, the HBO sitcom about an emerging Hollywood star succeeding in an often-seedy entertainment industry (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She started watching it amid the pandemic, became “captivated”, and chose to create a new version on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she says. The inspiration for the series originated—in part—from her own, originally rocky, transition to LA and from the cosmic event, a much-talked-about phenomenon for enthusiasts. This represented a phase that saw her learn some big life lessons, in her career and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Raised in the East Coast, Sennott began writing and performing stand-up while enrolled in acting 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. “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 took matters into her own hands, appearing at amateur nights with Edebiri and uploading hysterical (and decidedly) bizarre skits online. One, titled Baby Cult, followed several females intensely obsessed with pregnancy; a different one imagined working at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being caught in a thriller. Interestingly, she encountered Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ended up appearing in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a Jewish wake with hints of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her career, she says, has been people her own age supporting her, instead of established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she repeats, adding humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Anyone who were skeptical regarding Sennott previously will certainly be kicking themselves today. As part of she describes as a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she has created an ideal role. Previously she uploaded content named about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a show about LA residents managing benefits of internet fame (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being accused of being a substance-abusing stealer, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). One might easy to create a show about internet celebrity that was horribly aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at the characters. This show avoids both, making for a portrait of advantaged twentysomething living that’s frank about the grot 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
