Rachel Sennott appears on the video call and at once starts an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, sounding truly regretful. Despite being only a couple of minutes late, she wants 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!” Luckily, in this context, this is precisely what is ideal to hear. Moreover, it’s fairly unsurprising. Viewers who know her boldly openly gay and outspoken film Bottoms—that she co-wrote with Emma Seligman and featured in with collaborator the talented actress—can already know that Sennott holds much to discuss, whether on gender, sex, or the pros of creating a youth fight club. Plus, after watching her latest eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she carries even more perspectives on the darker side of modern youth (As a millennial, she is an honorary member for this generation, straddling eras skilled for connecting different age groups).
Influences and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and the actress readily acknowledges a fan, citing the show together with the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as influences for I Love LA, which follows the travails of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also fledgling agent Maia. Perhaps, the largest spot on the moodboard went to Entourage, the show about an up-and-coming A-list actor making his way in an often-seedy LA scene (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott discovered it during lockdown, became “hooked”, and chose to add a fresh perspective on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The idea for this project originated—partly—from firsthand, at first rocky, move to Los Angeles and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about occurrence for followers. It was a time that saw her grasp major life lessons, work-wise and personally. “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. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in Connecticut, the star commenced creating and acting humor while studying performance at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott decided to act independently, appearing at live shows with her friend and sharing hilarious (and decidedly) weird online content on the internet. One, Baby Cult, followed a group of women obsessively fixated on pregnancy; another envisioned being employed at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being caught in a thriller. By chance, she connected with Seligman through campus film circles and eventually starring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a religious event with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her career, she explains, has been contemporaries supporting her, rather than traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, stating amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who had doubts about her previously will certainly be kicking themselves today. Through she describes as a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she appears to manifested the perfect project. Previously she shared a video named about Los Angeles online, in which she mocked film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a show about LA residents balancing the perks of online celebrity (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being accused of being a substance-abusing thief, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). Some could simple to produce a program about digital influence that was overly idealized—or, more problematic, one that punched down at the characters. The series avoids both, making for a representation of affluent twentysomething existence that’s honest about the grot and the glamour.
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
