Rachel Sennott enters the video call and right away begins an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, sounding genuinely apologetic. She is only slightly delayed, she needs to justify. “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 one hopes to hear. Additionally, it’s quite expected. Anyone who know the fearlessly queer and brash film Bottoms—which she penned with the director and featured in with close companion the talented actress—would be aware that she holds much to discuss, ranging from on identity, relationships, or the pros of forming a youth fight club. Furthermore, after watching the recent eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she has further insights on the darker side of Gen Z life (As a millennial, she represents a bridge of the gang, on the cusp skilled for straddling different age groups).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and the actress is a fan, naming the show together with the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as influences for her series, which follows the travails of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also fledgling agent Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the most significant presence on the moodboard went to Entourage, the HBO sitcom depicting a rising celebrity navigating in a corrupt LA scene (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott discovered it amid lockdown, became “captivated”, and resolved to add a fresh perspective on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she notes. The concept for this project originated—in part—from personal, at first difficult, transition to Tinseltown and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about phenomenon for astrology heads. It was a time that involved her learn significant truths, work-wise and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Humble Origins
Raised in New England, Sennott started developing and showcasing comedy while studying performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at amateur nights with Edebiri and uploading hilarious (and very) bizarre comedy videos online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, followed characters fetishistically obsessed with pregnancy; a different one portrayed working at the brand Hollister as similar to being trapped in a horror film. Interestingly, she met Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually starring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a religious event with shades of the intense thriller. The central motif of her career, she explains, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, rather than established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she repeats, adding with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who questioned regarding her earlier will surely be kicking themselves now. Through she labels a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she seems to have created her dream vehicle. In 2019 she uploaded a clip titled about Los Angeles online, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a show about LA residents managing benefits of internet fame (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your client being suspected of being a drug-addled stealer, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). Some could easy to create a show about internet celebrity that was overly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at the characters. The series does neither, resulting in a depiction of privileged twentysomething living that’s honest about the mess and the shine.
Balanced Perspective
“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
