Rachel Sennott joins the online meeting and immediately launches into an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, seeming truly regretful. Although she's only a couple of minutes delayed, she wants to explain. “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!” Fortunately, during an interview, this is just what you want to experience. Besides, it’s quite unsurprising. Viewers who have seen her unapologetically openly gay and outspoken movie Bottoms—which she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and appeared in alongside close companion The Bear’s standout—will already know that she holds a lot to say, whether on gender, intimacy, or the merits of forming a high-school combat group. Plus, after watching her recent seasonal show I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds additional thoughts about the darker side of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, she serves as a bridge of the gang, a tale-end millennial with a knack for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and the actress admits to being enthusiastic, referencing the show in addition to Sex and the City, Insecure and Atlanta as inspirations for her series, which tracks the journey of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also new agent Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the most significant influence on creative vision was reserved for the popular sitcom, the program depicting an up-and-coming A-list actor navigating in an often-seedy Hollywood (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it during lockdown, became “obsessed”, and chose to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she notes. The inspiration for I Love LA originated—partly—from personal, originally difficult, move to LA and from the saturn return, a frequently discussed occurrence for followers. That period marked a phase that included her grasp significant truths, work-wise and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Humble Origins
Brought up in Connecticut, the star commenced writing and performing comedy while studying performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “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. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at open mics with Edebiri and sharing hysterical (and very) bizarre skits digitally. One, Baby Cult, followed several females fetishistically fixated on pregnancy; a different one envisioned working at the brand Hollister as like being stuck in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually starring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a religious event with hints of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her path, she explains, has been people her own age supporting her, as opposed to established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, continuing with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who had doubts regarding Sennott then will surely be kicking themselves currently. As part of she calls a “astonishingly complete” story, she seems to have created an ideal role. Previously she posted content called on LA life on the internet, in which she lampooned film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a series about Angelenos managing the perks of internet fame (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being accused of being a intoxicated criminal, and potentially becoming a risky outcast). One might tempting to create a series about online fame that was overly aspirational—or, worse, one that belittled at those depicted. The series avoids both, making for a depiction of advantaged millennial living that’s honest 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 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
