Rachel Sennott exploring the hilarious series depicting that chaotic allure of younger generation lifestyle
The performer appears on the digital interview and immediately starts an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, seeming genuinely remorseful. Despite being only a couple of minutes late, she needs to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, during an interview, this is just what is ideal to experience. Besides, it’s quite predictable. Viewers familiar with her fearlessly openly gay and outspoken project titled Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with Emma Seligman and appeared in alongside her friend The Bear’s standout—will be aware that Sennott has plenty to discuss, ranging from on gender, sex, or the appeal of creating a teen combat group. And, after watching the recent seasonal program I Love LA, viewers realize that she has further perspectives about the darker side of modern youth (Now in her thirties, Sennott represents a relatable figure of the gang, on the cusp adept for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and Sennott is an admirer, referencing it alongside the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as influences for the project, which details the travails of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and new agent Sennott’s character. Notably, the largest influence on the moodboard belonged to Entourage, the show depicting an emerging Hollywood star navigating in an often-seedy Hollywood (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott began viewing it throughout the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and resolved to put her own twist on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The concept for I Love LA originated—partly—from personal, originally rocky, relocation to LA and from the cosmic event, a frequently discussed occurrence for enthusiasts. That period marked a time that involved her understand some big truths, professionally and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “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…”
Starting Out
Brought up in the East Coast, the star started developing and showcasing stand-up while pursuing acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. 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 seized control, performing at live shows with her friend and sharing hilarious (and very) unconventional online content online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted a group of women intensely obsessed with having babies; a different one portrayed being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being trapped in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she met Seligman through campus film circles and eventually appearing in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a Jewish wake with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her career, she notes, has been peers offering opportunities, instead of traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, stating humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Anyone who had doubts regarding her previously will certainly be feeling foolish now. As part of she describes as a “wild, full-circle” development, she appears to achieved her dream vehicle. In 2019 she posted a video titled on LA life on social media, in which she mocked movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a show about Angelenos balancing advantages of digital stardom (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being accused of being a drug-addled stealer, and possibly becoming a unreliable outcast). It would be tempting to produce a series about digital influence that was overly idealized—or, worse, one that punched down at its subjects. This show does neither, making for a portrait of affluent twentysomething living that’s frank about the chaos 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 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