Rachel Sennott appears on the online meeting and at once begins an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, seeming truly apologetic. Despite being only slightly late, she needs to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, in this context, this is precisely what you want to encounter. Additionally, it’s pretty unsurprising. Those who know her fearlessly queer and brash project titled Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with her creative partner and starred in with her friend The Bear’s standout—will understand that she possesses much to share, whether about identity, relationships, or the appeal of forming a high-school brawl society. Plus, by the end the latest seasonal HBO series I Love LA, viewers realize that the star holds further perspectives on the struggles of modern youth (At 30, Sennott serves as a relatable figure for this generation, on the cusp adept for bridging both generations).
Influences and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and the actress readily acknowledges an admirer, citing it in addition to the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as influences for the project, which tracks the struggles of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also fledgling talent manager Sennott’s character. However, the largest spot on the moodboard went to the HBO series, the program depicting an up-and-coming Hollywood star succeeding in a gritty LA scene (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She began viewing it during lockdown, became “obsessed”, and chose to add a fresh perspective 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 explains. The idea for I Love LA came—in part—from personal, originally rocky, transition to LA and from her saturn return, a much-talked-about event for enthusiasts. This represented a phase that involved her understand significant truths, professionally and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Starting Out
Raised in New England, the star started writing and performing humor while studying performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She decided to act independently, taking the stage at live shows with Ayo and posting hilarious (and decidedly) weird comedy videos online. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed several females fetishistically obsessed with having babies; a different one portrayed being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being caught in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she met Seligman through the university’s film scene and eventually featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a funeral gathering with hints of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her journey, she explains, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, instead of the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, adding amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who were skeptical regarding Sennott earlier will likely be kicking themselves currently. As part of she labels a “incredibly circular” development, she seems to have achieved the perfect project. In 2019 she shared content called on LA life online, in which she parodied film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a show about Angelenos juggling advantages of internet fame (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your client being labeled as being a intoxicated stealer, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). Some could simple to create a show about digital influence that was horribly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that mocked at those depicted. This show does neither, creating a representation of affluent twentysomething life that’s frank about the chaos 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
