Rachel Sennott joins the digital interview and immediately launches into an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, sounding truly regretful. She is only a bit delayed, she wants to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, in this context, that’s precisely what one hopes to experience. Moreover, it’s quite unsurprising. Those familiar with the unapologetically queer and unapologetically crass project Bottoms—that she co-wrote with her creative partner and featured in with close companion Ayo Edebiri—would already know that Sennott holds much to say, whether on identity, sex, or the pros of starting a youth fight club. Plus, by the end the new multi-episode program I Love LA, viewers realize that she carries additional thoughts on the struggles of modern youth (At 30, she represents an honorary member of the gang, straddling eras adept for connecting different age groups).
Influences and Creative Vision
Parallels to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and the actress is an admirer, naming it in addition to the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as inspirations for the project, which follows the journey of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and fledgling representative portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the most significant influence on concept went to Entourage, that show about an up-and-coming celebrity making his way in an often-seedy entertainment industry (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott started watching it during COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and resolved to put her own twist 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 concept for this project originated—in part—from personal, initially fractious, relocation to Tinseltown and from the cosmic event, a popular occurrence for enthusiasts. That period marked a phase that included her learn some big insights, professionally and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Starting Out
Brought up in the East Coast, Sennott began creating and acting stand-up while studying acting at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She seized control, taking the stage at open mics with her friend and posting hilarious (and decidedly) bizarre comedy videos digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted characters fetishistically obsessed with motherhood; a different one envisioned working at the brand Hollister as like being stuck in a horror film. Interestingly, she connected with Seligman through the university’s film scene and ended up starring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her career, she explains, has been contemporaries supporting her, as opposed to established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, continuing with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who had doubts about Sennott earlier will likely be regretting it currently. As part of she describes as a “wild, full-circle” story, she seems to have achieved an ideal role. A few years back she shared content titled about Los Angeles on social media, in which she mocked film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a show about Angelenos balancing the perks of internet fame (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your client being suspected of being a drug-addled thief, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). One might easy to create a series about internet celebrity that was horribly glamorous—or, worse, one that mocked at those depicted. The series steers clear of each, creating a portrait of affluent twentysomething existence that’s frank about the chaos and the glamour.
Balanced Perspective
“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
