Rachel Sennott appears on the online meeting and at once begins an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, sounding genuinely regretful. She is only a couple of minutes late, she needs to clarify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, for a writer, that’s just what you want to experience. Additionally, it’s fairly expected. Anyone who have seen her fearlessly openly gay and brash film Bottoms—which Sennott penned with the director and featured in together with collaborator The Bear’s standout—will already know that she has much to discuss, ranging from about roles, sex, or the appeal of creating a high-school combat group. And, by the end the new eight-part show titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star has additional insights about the struggles of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott represents a relatable figure for this generation, straddling eras skilled for straddling different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and the actress readily acknowledges an admirer, naming it together with Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as influences for the project, which tracks the travails of a social media star Tallulah and close companion and fledgling representative portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the largest spot on creative vision was reserved for the HBO series, the show about an up-and-coming Hollywood star navigating in a corrupt entertainment industry (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott started watching it throughout COVID-19, became “hooked”, and decided to add a fresh perspective 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 explains. The concept for I Love LA originated—in part—from firsthand, originally fractious, move to Los Angeles and from the astrological phase, a popular event for enthusiasts. It was a phase that included her grasp significant life lessons, professionally and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Starting Out
Brought up in Connecticut, the star commenced developing and showcasing humor while pursuing performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She seized control, taking the stage at amateur nights with Ayo and posting uproarious (and decidedly) weird skits online. One, Baby Cult, followed a group of women intensely fixated on pregnancy; another imagined being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being caught in a scary movie. By chance, she connected with Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually featuring in her first film, Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her career, she notes, has been people her own age giving her a shot, as opposed to traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, adding with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who had doubts about her previously will certainly be regretting it today. As part of she describes as a “incredibly circular” story, she has achieved the perfect project. In 2019 she shared a clip titled “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she lampooned film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a series about Angelenos balancing benefits of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your client being accused of being a intoxicated thief, and possibly becoming a unreliable pariah). It would be tempting to create a series about internet celebrity that was horribly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that mocked at the characters. This show does neither, creating a representation of affluent twentysomething life that’s candid about the grot and the appeal.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
