Rachel Sennott enters the video call and at once begins an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, sounding genuinely remorseful. Despite being only slightly delayed, she feels compelled to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, for a writer, that’s exactly what is ideal to experience. Moreover, it’s fairly unsurprising. Those who have seen her unapologetically LGBTQ+ and brash project titled Bottoms—which Sennott penned with the director and starred in with her friend The Bear’s standout—would understand that Sennott possesses a lot to say, ranging from on roles, relationships, or the appeal of forming a youth brawl society. Plus, after watching the recent multi-episode program I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star has further perspectives on the darker side of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, she serves as a relatable figure of the gang, on the cusp skilled for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Creative Vision
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress readily acknowledges an admirer, citing it together with Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as influences for her series, which follows the struggles of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion and new agent portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the largest spot on creative vision was reserved for the HBO series, the HBO sitcom about an up-and-coming A-list actor succeeding in a corrupt Hollywood (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott started watching it amid lockdown, became “hooked”, and decided to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The concept for I Love LA emerged—partly—from her own, initially fractious, move to Tinseltown and from her cosmic event, a frequently discussed phenomenon for enthusiasts. This represented an era that saw her learn significant truths, work-wise and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “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…”
Humble Origins
Brought up in the East Coast, the star commenced developing and showcasing comedy while studying theatre at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “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. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott decided to act independently, performing at open mics with her friend and uploading hilarious (and decidedly) bizarre online content digitally. One, Baby Cult, depicted characters fetishistically obsessed with motherhood; a different one imagined being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being stuck in a thriller. By chance, she encountered Emma through campus film circles and ended up appearing in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her path, she says, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, instead of the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, adding amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Those who questioned regarding Sennott then will likely be kicking themselves now. Through she describes as a “incredibly circular” story, she appears to achieved an ideal role. Previously she uploaded a video titled “it’s LA” online, in which she mocked film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a series about city dwellers managing advantages of digital stardom (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being suspected of being a drug-addled thief, and potentially becoming a unreliable pariah). Some could simple to make a show about online fame that was overly idealized—or, more problematic, one that mocked at those depicted. I Love LA avoids both, making for a depiction of affluent twentysomething existence that’s candid about the mess and the appeal.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
