Rachel Sennott enters the video call and at once begins an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, seeming genuinely remorseful. Although she's only slightly delayed, she feels compelled 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, during an interview, that’s just what is ideal to hear. Additionally, it’s quite predictable. Anyone familiar with her boldly openly gay and outspoken movie titled Bottoms—which she penned with Emma Seligman and appeared in together with her friend The Bear’s standout—can already know that Sennott has plenty to share, ranging from about roles, intimacy, or the merits of starting a youth combat group. Plus, by the end the new multi-episode show I Love LA, it is clear that the star has additional insights regarding the challenges of modern youth (As a millennial, she represents a bridge of the gang, on the cusp adept for straddling both generations).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott is an admirer, naming it alongside Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as guides for the project, which tracks the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also aspiring agent portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the largest influence on creative vision went to the popular sitcom, that show focusing on an up-and-coming celebrity navigating in a gritty Hollywood (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott began viewing it throughout COVID-19, became “captivated”, 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 says. The inspiration for I Love LA originated—in part—from firsthand, at first rocky, transition to Los Angeles and from the cosmic event, a much-talked-about occurrence for astrology heads. This represented a time that included her learn major truths, work-wise and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Starting Out
Brought up in New England, the star started developing and showcasing comedy while studying theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She decided to act independently, appearing at amateur nights with Ayo and uploading uproarious (and very) bizarre online content online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on characters fetishistically obsessed with having babies; another portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as like being trapped in a horror film. Interestingly, she connected with Emma through NYU’s movie community and ultimately appearing in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a religious event with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her journey, she says, has been contemporaries supporting her, rather than traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, stating humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Manifesting Dreams
Individuals who were skeptical about Sennott previously will surely be kicking themselves currently. Through she calls a “incredibly circular” development, she seems to have created an ideal role. A few years back she uploaded a clip titled “it’s LA” on social media, in which she lampooned movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about Angelenos juggling benefits of online celebrity (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your client being accused of being a drug-addled thief, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). It would be simple to produce a program about internet celebrity that was overly idealized—or, more problematic, one that belittled at its subjects. I Love LA avoids both, making for a portrait of affluent young adult living that’s honest about the mess and the glamour.
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
