Rachel Sennott enters the video call and right away launches into an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, sounding truly regretful. Although she's only a bit delayed, she feels compelled to explain. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, in this context, this is exactly what you want to hear. Moreover, it’s pretty predictable. Those who know her fearlessly openly gay and unapologetically crass movie Bottoms—which she collaborated on with her creative partner and starred in alongside her friend The Bear’s standout—can be aware that Sennott possesses plenty to say, be it on gender, sex, or the pros of forming a high-school combat group. And, once you finish the new seasonal show I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star carries further perspectives regarding the darker side of modern youth (As a millennial, she is an honorary member to younger audiences, straddling eras with a knack for straddling different age groups).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
Parallels to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress is a fan, referencing the show alongside the classic series, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as influences for her series, which tracks the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and new talent manager Sennott’s character. Notably, the biggest spot on creative vision belonged to the popular sitcom, the show depicting a rising Hollywood star succeeding in an often-seedy entertainment industry (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She started watching it during COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and chose to put her own twist on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she explains. The inspiration for I Love LA emerged—partly—from firsthand, originally fractious, relocation to Tinseltown and from the saturn return, a frequently discussed phenomenon for astrology heads. It was a phase that involved her learn major life lessons, professionally and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “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 New England, the star began writing and performing comedy while enrolled in acting at NYU’s Tisch. “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.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at open mics with her friend and uploading hilarious (and very) bizarre skits digitally. One, Baby Cult, centered on characters fetishistically drawn to pregnancy; another portrayed being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being trapped in a scary movie. By chance, she met Seligman through campus film circles and ultimately featuring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a religious event with hints of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her path, she explains, has been contemporaries supporting her, as opposed to traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, adding with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Individuals who were skeptical about Sennott then will certainly be kicking themselves currently. Through she describes as a “incredibly circular” development, she appears to achieved an ideal role. Previously she posted a video named about Los Angeles online, in which she lampooned film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a series about Angelenos managing benefits of digital stardom (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being accused of being a intoxicated thief, and potentially becoming a risky persona non grata). It would be simple to make a show about online fame that was horribly aspirational—or, worse, one that punched down at the characters. The series avoids both, resulting in a depiction of advantaged twentysomething life that’s candid about the grot 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 says. “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
