Rachel Sennott enters the video call and right away starts an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, sounding really remorseful. She is only a bit late, she wants to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, during an interview, that’s just what is ideal to encounter. Besides, it’s pretty unsurprising. Those who have seen the fearlessly LGBTQ+ and outspoken movie titled Bottoms—which she penned with Emma Seligman and starred in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—will understand that she holds a lot to discuss, ranging from about roles, sex, or the pros of creating a youth brawl society. Plus, after watching the recent eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she holds additional thoughts on the darker side of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, Sennott serves as an honorary member for this generation, straddling eras skilled for bridging different age groups).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott admits to being a fan, naming the show in addition to Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for her series, which details the travails of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also aspiring agent Maia. However, the largest influence on creative vision was reserved for the popular sitcom, that HBO sitcom focusing on an emerging Hollywood star making his way in an often-seedy entertainment industry (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She started watching it amid the pandemic, became “hooked”, and chose to create a new version 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 emerged—to some extent—from her own, initially difficult, move to LA and from her cosmic event, a much-talked-about event for followers. That period marked an era that included her learn significant truths, professionally and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in New England, the star started writing and performing humor while enrolled in acting at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “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. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, performing at live shows with Ayo and sharing uproarious (and very) bizarre skits digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on characters obsessively obsessed with pregnancy; another envisioned being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being stuck in a scary movie. By chance, she connected with Emma through campus film circles and ended up starring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of the intense thriller. The big theme of her career, she notes, has been peers giving her a shot, instead of established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, adding with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who had doubts regarding Sennott earlier will certainly be feeling foolish today. Through she describes as a “astonishingly complete” development, she has manifested her dream vehicle. Previously she shared a clip named on LA life on the internet, in which she mocked movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a comedy about Angelenos balancing advantages of digital stardom (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your associate being labeled as being a intoxicated thief, and perhaps becoming a risky outcast). Some could easy to create a series about digital influence that was horribly aspirational—or, worse, one that belittled at its subjects. I Love LA does neither, creating a representation of affluent millennial existence that’s frank about the grot and the appeal.
Empathetic Approach
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” 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
