Rachel Sennott enters the digital interview and at once starts an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, seeming genuinely regretful. She is only a couple of minutes delayed, she needs to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, in this context, that’s exactly what is ideal to hear. Besides, it’s quite unsurprising. Anyone familiar with the unapologetically queer and unapologetically crass project Bottoms—that she penned with her creative partner and appeared in together with close companion Ayo Edebiri—would already know that Sennott holds a lot to say, ranging from about roles, sex, or the pros of creating a youth combat group. Furthermore, by the end the latest eight-part HBO series I Love LA, viewers realize that the star has further insights about the struggles of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott is a relatable figure to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial adept for connecting different age groups).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and the actress admits to being an admirer, naming it together with the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as influences for I Love LA, which tracks the struggles of online personality Tallulah and her friend who is also aspiring representative portrayed by Sennott. However, the biggest influence on creative vision belonged to the popular sitcom, the HBO sitcom focusing on an emerging celebrity succeeding in a gritty Hollywood (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She began viewing it amid lockdown, became “hooked”, and decided 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 says. The idea for I Love LA originated—partly—from firsthand, at first fractious, relocation to Tinseltown and from the cosmic event, a popular occurrence for followers. It was a time that saw her understand some big insights, work-wise and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “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 …”
Humble Origins
Growing up in Connecticut, the star started developing and showcasing stand-up while enrolled in performance at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott decided to act independently, appearing at amateur nights with her friend and uploading hilarious (and very) unconventional skits digitally. One, Baby Cult, followed several females fetishistically fixated on motherhood; another envisioned working at the brand Hollister as like being caught in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she met Seligman through campus film circles and ended up starring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a religious event with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her journey, she explains, has been peers giving her a shot, as opposed to established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, adding amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who questioned about her earlier will certainly be feeling foolish today. In what she describes as a “astonishingly complete” story, she seems to have created her dream vehicle. In 2019 she posted content called about Los Angeles online, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a series about Angelenos balancing benefits of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your client being labeled as being a drug-addled thief, and perhaps becoming a risky persona non grata). It would be tempting to create a show about internet celebrity that was extremely glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at its subjects. This show does neither, resulting in a depiction of privileged young adult living that’s honest about the grot and the shine.
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
