Rachel Sennott joins the digital interview and at once launches into an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, appearing genuinely regretful. Although she's only a couple of minutes late, she needs to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, for a writer, that’s just what you want to hear. Additionally, it’s fairly unsurprising. Those who know the unapologetically queer and outspoken film Bottoms—which she co-wrote with her creative partner and appeared in with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—would already know that she possesses a lot to discuss, ranging from about gender, sex, or the pros of creating a teen combat group. Furthermore, by the end her latest seasonal HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that she carries even more insights about the darker side of modern youth (Now in her thirties, Sennott serves as a bridge for this generation, a tale-end millennial skilled for straddling different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott readily acknowledges a fan, naming it alongside Sex and the City, Insecure and Atlanta as influences for her series, which tracks the struggles of a social media star Tallulah and ally and fledgling talent manager Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the largest presence on the moodboard went to the HBO series, the show about an emerging A-list actor making his way in a gritty Hollywood (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott started watching it amid COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and chose to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she says. The concept for the series came—to some extent—from firsthand, originally fractious, move to LA and from the saturn return, a much-talked-about event for enthusiasts. This represented an era that included her grasp some big truths, in her career and personally. “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. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Raised in New England, the star began writing and performing humor while pursuing theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
She took matters into her own hands, appearing at live shows with Ayo and sharing hysterical (and decidedly) weird online content on the internet. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed characters fetishistically obsessed with pregnancy; a different one envisioned working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being stuck in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually appearing in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a funeral gathering with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her career, she says, has been people her own age supporting her, as opposed to traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she confirms, continuing humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who were skeptical regarding her previously will likely be kicking themselves today. In what she labels a “incredibly circular” story, she seems to have achieved the perfect project. Previously she shared content named “it’s LA” online, in which she lampooned film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about LA residents juggling benefits of internet fame (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your client being labeled as being a intoxicated stealer, and perhaps becoming a risky outcast). Some could easy to produce a program about online fame that was overly aspirational—or, worse, one that mocked at the characters. The series avoids both, making for a depiction of privileged twentysomething existence that’s frank about the chaos and the appeal.
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 observes. “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
