Rachel Sennott enters the digital interview and immediately begins an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, seeming truly remorseful. Although she's only a couple of minutes late, she feels compelled to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, for a writer, that’s precisely what you want to hear. Besides, it’s quite unsurprising. Viewers familiar with her unapologetically LGBTQ+ and brash movie Bottoms—which she penned with the director and featured in alongside collaborator the talented actress—would understand that she possesses plenty to share, be it on gender, sex, or the appeal of forming a teen brawl society. Plus, once you finish the new seasonal show titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she holds even more thoughts on the darker side of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, she serves as an honorary member to younger audiences, straddling eras skilled for straddling both generations).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and the actress admits to being an admirer, citing the show together with the classic series, Insecure and Atlanta as inspirations for I Love LA, which tracks the travails of online personality Tallulah and her friend and new representative Maia. However, the most significant spot on the moodboard went to the HBO series, the program focusing on an up-and-coming Hollywood star succeeding in an often-seedy entertainment industry (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She started watching it amid the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and resolved to add a fresh perspective on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The idea for this project originated—partly—from personal, originally difficult, relocation to Tinseltown and from her astrological phase, a popular occurrence for enthusiasts. That period marked an era that saw her learn some big insights, in her career and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she admits. “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 Connecticut, Sennott began creating and acting comedy while studying theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
She seized control, appearing at open mics with Ayo and posting uproarious (and very) unconventional skits on the internet. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on a group of women intensely obsessed with having babies; another portrayed working at the brand Hollister as similar to being stuck in a scary movie. By chance, she connected with Emma through the university’s film scene and ultimately featuring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a Jewish wake with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her career, she notes, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, rather than the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, stating with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who had doubts about Sennott previously will certainly be kicking themselves today. As part of she calls a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she seems to have achieved the perfect project. A few years back she uploaded content named about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she mocked movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a show about Angelenos managing advantages of internet fame (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being accused of being a substance-abusing thief, and potentially becoming a risky outcast). One might tempting to make a show about online fame that was horribly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at the characters. The series steers clear of each, resulting in a portrait of privileged twentysomething existence that’s candid about the chaos and the appeal.
Empathetic Approach
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” she comments. “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
