Rachel Sennott joins the digital interview and right away begins an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, appearing really regretful. She is only a couple of minutes delayed, she wants to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, in this context, that’s exactly what one hopes to hear. Moreover, it’s fairly predictable. Anyone familiar with her boldly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—which she penned with Emma Seligman and appeared in with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—can be aware that she holds much to share, ranging from about gender, sex, or the pros of creating a youth combat group. Plus, once you finish the new multi-episode HBO series titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star holds further perspectives about the struggles of modern youth (Now in her thirties, she serves as a relatable figure to younger audiences, straddling eras with a knack for bridging different age groups).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and Sennott is enthusiastic, referencing it together with Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as inspirations for I Love LA, which details the travails of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and new agent Sennott’s character. However, the biggest influence on creative vision went to the HBO series, the program focusing on an up-and-coming A-list actor making his way in a gritty entertainment industry (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott began viewing it amid the pandemic, became “hooked”, and chose to put her own twist 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 concept for the series came—to some extent—from her own, initially difficult, relocation to Tinseltown and from her cosmic event, a frequently discussed phenomenon for followers. This represented a time that saw her learn major truths, work-wise and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott began developing and showcasing humor while studying acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott decided to act independently, performing at live shows with her friend and sharing uproarious (and very) weird online content on the internet. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed several females obsessively fixated on having babies; a different one envisioned working at the brand Hollister as akin to being trapped in a horror film. By chance, she met Seligman through the university’s film scene and ultimately appearing in her initial project, Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her journey, she explains, has been peers giving her a shot, as opposed to traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, adding humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Rising Success
Those who were skeptical about Sennott earlier will likely be regretting it today. As part of she describes as a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she has created her dream vehicle. In 2019 she posted content called on LA life online, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a show about LA residents balancing advantages of digital stardom (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being suspected of being a drug-addled thief, and perhaps becoming a unreliable outcast). It would be easy to make a show about internet celebrity that was horribly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at those depicted. This show avoids both, making for a representation of privileged twentysomething living that’s honest about the grot and the appeal.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
