Rachel Sennott joins the video call and right away launches into an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, appearing truly remorseful. She is only slightly late, she feels compelled to clarify. “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, in this context, that’s just what you want to hear. Moreover, it’s fairly expected. Those who know her unapologetically queer and unapologetically crass project Bottoms—that she co-wrote with the director and appeared in together with her friend The Bear’s standout—will already know that she holds plenty to share, whether about gender, sex, or the merits of creating a youth combat group. Plus, after watching the latest eight-part show titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she carries additional perspectives about the challenges of modern youth (As a millennial, she serves as a bridge to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial skilled for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress admits to being an admirer, naming it in addition to the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as influences for her series, which tracks the travails of an influencer Tallulah and close companion and new agent Maia. However, the largest influence on creative vision belonged to Entourage, that program focusing on an up-and-coming celebrity navigating in an often-seedy entertainment industry (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it during lockdown, became “obsessed”, and resolved to add a fresh perspective on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she notes. The inspiration for I Love LA originated—partly—from her own, at first difficult, transition to LA and from the saturn return, a frequently discussed occurrence for enthusiasts. It was a phase that saw her learn major insights, work-wise and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in Connecticut, the star began developing and showcasing stand-up while pursuing acting at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she explains. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at open mics with her friend and sharing uproarious (and distinctly) weird skits digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted characters obsessively obsessed with having babies; another portrayed working at a trendy retail outlet as like being caught in a thriller. By chance, she connected with Seligman through the university’s film scene and eventually featuring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a religious event with shades of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her path, she says, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, as opposed to the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she repeats, continuing humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Anyone who had doubts regarding Sennott earlier will certainly be regretting it now. Through she describes as a “astonishingly complete” story, she appears to created an ideal role. A few years back she uploaded a video titled “it’s LA” on social media, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a series about city dwellers juggling advantages of internet fame (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being labeled as being a substance-abusing stealer, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). One might easy to produce a series about online fame that was overly glamorous—or, worse, one that punched down at the characters. This show avoids both, resulting in a depiction of affluent twentysomething existence that’s candid about the mess and the appeal.
Nuanced Portrayal
“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
