Rachel Sennott joins the digital interview and right away launches into an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, appearing truly remorseful. She is only slightly behind, she feels compelled to justify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, in this context, that’s exactly what one hopes to hear. Besides, it’s fairly predictable. Anyone who know her unapologetically queer and outspoken film Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with the director and starred in with collaborator The Bear’s standout—will be aware that Sennott holds a lot to discuss, be it on identity, intimacy, or the pros of starting a youth fight club. Furthermore, once you finish her recent eight-part program titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she has even more thoughts on the darker side of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott serves as a relatable figure for this generation, a tale-end millennial skilled for bridging different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
Parallels to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress readily acknowledges an admirer, citing it together with the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as guides for the project, which details the travails of online personality Tallulah and close companion who is also fledgling agent portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the biggest presence on concept belonged to Entourage, the show focusing on an up-and-coming Hollywood star making his way in a gritty LA scene (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She began viewing it throughout the pandemic, became “hooked”, and resolved to add a fresh perspective on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she explains. The concept for the series emerged—to some extent—from personal, originally difficult, move to LA and from her saturn return, a much-talked-about phenomenon for followers. This represented a phase that included her grasp 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…”
Humble Origins
Brought up in the East Coast, the star began developing and showcasing humor while studying theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
She took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at amateur nights with Ayo and posting hilarious (and decidedly) unconventional skits on the internet. One, Baby Cult, centered on several females obsessively drawn to motherhood; another imagined working at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being caught in a scary movie. By chance, she encountered Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ended up appearing in her initial project, Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her journey, she explains, has been people her own age giving her a shot, as opposed to established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, adding humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Anyone who questioned regarding her earlier will surely be regretting it currently. As part of she labels a “wild, full-circle” development, she has created her dream vehicle. Previously she shared a clip titled “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a comedy about city dwellers balancing benefits of internet fame (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being labeled as being a substance-abusing criminal, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). It would be easy to create a series about internet celebrity that was horribly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that belittled at its subjects. I Love LA avoids both, resulting in a depiction of affluent twentysomething existence that’s honest about the chaos and the shine.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
