Rachel Sennott appears on the video call and immediately starts an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, seeming truly apologetic. She is only a bit delayed, she wants to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, during an interview, this is exactly what you want to experience. Additionally, it’s pretty predictable. Anyone who know her unapologetically openly gay and outspoken project Bottoms—that she collaborated on with her creative partner and appeared in alongside close companion the talented actress—can be aware that she has plenty to say, whether on identity, intimacy, or the merits of starting a teen combat group. And, by the end the recent multi-episode show titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries further perspectives regarding the challenges of Gen Z life (At 30, she serves as a relatable figure to younger audiences, straddling eras skilled for bridging different age groups).
Influences and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and the actress readily acknowledges enthusiastic, citing the show alongside Sex and the City, Insecure and Atlanta as guides for I Love LA, which follows the journey of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also fledgling representative Maia. However, the largest presence on the moodboard belonged to Entourage, the HBO sitcom depicting an up-and-coming A-list actor making his way in a corrupt Hollywood (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She started watching it amid COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and decided to put her own twist 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 explains. The inspiration for this project came—partly—from firsthand, initially fractious, move to LA and from the cosmic event, a popular event for astrology heads. It was a phase that saw her understand major life lessons, work-wise and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Humble Origins
Raised in Connecticut, the star started writing and performing humor while pursuing performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott seized control, appearing at live shows with Ayo and uploading hysterical (and decidedly) bizarre skits online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted several females obsessively obsessed with having babies; a different one imagined being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being stuck in a horror film. Interestingly, she met Emma through campus film circles and ended up appearing in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her path, she notes, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, instead of established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, stating humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who questioned about Sennott then will certainly be regretting it currently. Through she describes as a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she seems to have created an ideal role. In 2019 she uploaded a video called about Los Angeles on social media, in which she mocked film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a comedy about Angelenos managing the perks of digital stardom (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being suspected of being a drug-addled criminal, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). It would be simple to make a program about internet celebrity that was horribly aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at those depicted. I Love LA does neither, resulting in a representation of advantaged young adult existence that’s honest about the mess and the shine.
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 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
