Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and right away launches into an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, appearing really apologetic. Although she's only a bit delayed, she wants to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, in this context, that’s just what one hopes to hear. Moreover, it’s pretty unsurprising. Those who know her boldly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass film Bottoms—which Sennott collaborated on with the director and starred in together with her friend Ayo Edebiri—can be aware that she has much to discuss, be it on roles, sex, or the pros of creating a teen fight club. Furthermore, once you finish her recent multi-episode HBO series titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds additional insights regarding the darker side of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, she is a relatable figure of the gang, on the cusp with a knack for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and Sennott readily acknowledges enthusiastic, referencing it in addition to Sex and the City, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as guides for I Love LA, which follows the struggles of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also aspiring representative portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the most significant influence on concept was reserved for the popular sitcom, the program focusing on a rising A-list actor making his way in a gritty Hollywood (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She discovered it during lockdown, became “captivated”, and decided to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she explains. The inspiration for I Love LA originated—in part—from personal, initially difficult, move to Tinseltown and from the saturn return, a frequently discussed occurrence for astrology heads. It was a phase that involved her learn significant insights, professionally and individually. “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. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in the East Coast, the star commenced writing and performing comedy while studying performance 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 explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. 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.”
She seized control, performing at open mics with her friend and posting hysterical (and very) weird online content digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed characters intensely drawn to having babies; a different one portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as like being stuck in a scary movie. By chance, she connected with Seligman through campus film circles and eventually appearing in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the intense thriller. The central motif of her path, she explains, has been peers offering opportunities, as opposed to traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, adding humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who had doubts about her previously will likely be regretting it currently. Through she describes as a “incredibly circular” development, she seems to have created her dream vehicle. Previously she posted content titled about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she mocked movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a show about LA residents managing the perks of internet fame (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being labeled as being a drug-addled criminal, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). It would be easy to produce a series about digital influence that was horribly aspirational—or, worse, one that mocked at the characters. I Love LA steers clear of each, resulting in a portrait of affluent millennial existence that’s candid about the mess and the shine.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” she comments. “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
