Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and right away begins an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, sounding genuinely apologetic. Although she's only a couple of minutes late, she feels compelled to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, in this context, that’s precisely what one hopes to encounter. Moreover, it’s fairly expected. Anyone who have seen her fearlessly LGBTQ+ and brash film Bottoms—which she co-wrote with the director and starred in with close companion the talented actress—will understand that Sennott has plenty to discuss, ranging from on gender, sex, or the appeal of starting a high-school fight club. Furthermore, by the end the new seasonal show I Love LA, viewers realize that she holds further insights on the challenges 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 Girls are inevitable and the actress admits to being an admirer, naming the show alongside Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for I Love LA, which details the journey of an influencer Tallulah and her friend and aspiring agent Maia. Perhaps, the largest spot on creative vision belonged to the popular sitcom, that show about a rising A-list actor succeeding in a gritty entertainment industry (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott discovered it amid the pandemic, became “hooked”, and decided to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she explains. The idea for I Love LA came—partly—from firsthand, originally rocky, relocation to Tinseltown and from the astrological phase, a much-talked-about occurrence for astrology heads. That period marked an era that included her learn major life lessons, in her career and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Starting Out
Raised in the East Coast, the star started creating and acting humor while pursuing acting at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott seized control, taking the stage at live shows with Edebiri and sharing hysterical (and decidedly) weird online content online. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted characters obsessively obsessed with having babies; another imagined being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being trapped in a horror film. Interestingly, she encountered Seligman through NYU’s movie community and eventually featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her journey, she says, has been peers supporting her, instead of traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she confirms, stating humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who had doubts regarding Sennott previously will certainly be regretting it currently. As part of she calls a “incredibly circular” story, she seems to have achieved an ideal role. In 2019 she posted a clip titled about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she mocked film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a show about Angelenos managing benefits of internet fame (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being labeled as being a drug-addled stealer, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). One might tempting to create a program about online fame that was overly idealized—or, worse, one that mocked at those depicted. The series avoids both, creating a portrait of privileged young adult existence that’s candid about the chaos and the appeal.
Nuanced Portrayal
“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
