Rachel Sennott appears on the video call and right away begins an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, seeming genuinely remorseful. She is only slightly late, she needs to justify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, for a writer, this is exactly what you want to experience. Additionally, it’s pretty predictable. Anyone familiar with the boldly queer and unapologetically crass film Bottoms—that she penned with her creative partner and featured in alongside collaborator Ayo Edebiri—will be aware that Sennott has plenty to discuss, ranging from about gender, sex, or the appeal of forming a teen fight club. Plus, once you finish her new seasonal show I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries further thoughts regarding the darker side of modern youth (At 30, she represents an honorary member of the gang, on the cusp skilled for connecting different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and the actress readily acknowledges a fan, referencing it together with the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as influences for her series, which details the journey of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also new talent manager Maia. Notably, the most significant influence on creative vision went to the HBO series, that show focusing on a rising A-list actor making his way in a corrupt LA scene (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott began viewing it amid COVID-19, became “hooked”, and chose to put her own twist on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The concept for I Love LA came—partly—from firsthand, initially rocky, transition to Los Angeles and from the saturn return, a frequently discussed occurrence for followers. This represented a time that saw her understand some big insights, work-wise and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Humble Origins
Brought up in New England, Sennott started developing and showcasing comedy while pursuing theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, appearing at open mics with Edebiri and posting hysterical (and distinctly) bizarre comedy videos digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted several females obsessively fixated on motherhood; another portrayed being employed at the brand Hollister as akin to being caught in a scary movie. By chance, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and ultimately featuring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a religious event with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her path, she explains, has been peers giving her a shot, rather than traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, adding with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Rising Success
Anyone who had doubts about Sennott previously will surely be regretting it currently. In what she labels a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she appears to created the perfect project. A few years back she shared a clip named about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a show about Angelenos managing advantages of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being suspected of being a drug-addled criminal, and perhaps becoming a risky pariah). One might simple to make a program about online fame that was extremely aspirational—or, more problematic, one that belittled at its subjects. I Love LA steers clear of each, making for a representation of affluent young adult existence that’s honest about the grot and the appeal.
Empathetic Approach
“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
