Rachel Sennott appears on the digital interview and right away launches into an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, seeming genuinely regretful. Despite being only a couple of minutes behind, 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!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s just what you want to encounter. Moreover, it’s quite unsurprising. Anyone who have seen the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and outspoken project Bottoms—that she co-wrote with her creative partner and starred in together with close companion Ayo Edebiri—can be aware that Sennott has plenty to discuss, whether about identity, intimacy, or the appeal of creating a youth brawl society. Plus, once you finish the recent seasonal show I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star carries further thoughts on the struggles of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott is a bridge of the gang, a tale-end millennial with a knack for connecting both generations).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott readily acknowledges an admirer, referencing the show in addition to the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as inspirations for the project, which follows the struggles of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also new agent Maia. Notably, the largest influence on the moodboard went to Entourage, the HBO sitcom about a rising celebrity navigating in a corrupt Hollywood (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She started watching it amid lockdown, became “obsessed”, and chose to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she says. The idea for this project originated—partly—from personal, initially fractious, transition to Los Angeles and from the saturn return, a frequently discussed occurrence for followers. That period marked an era that included her understand significant life lessons, work-wise and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “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
Growing up in New England, Sennott commenced writing and performing comedy while studying theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott decided to act independently, appearing at amateur nights with her friend and sharing uproarious (and very) unconventional comedy videos on the internet. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed characters obsessively fixated on having babies; another envisioned working at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being trapped in a thriller. By chance, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually featuring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a religious event with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her path, 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, stating with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who questioned regarding her earlier will certainly be kicking themselves now. Through she describes as a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she has achieved her dream vehicle. Previously she uploaded a video called on LA life online, in which she lampooned film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a show about city dwellers juggling the perks of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your client being accused of being a drug-addled thief, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). It would be easy to make a program about online fame that was overly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at those depicted. I Love LA avoids both, creating a representation of affluent millennial life that’s frank about the grot and the appeal.
Empathetic Approach
“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
