The comedic talent on the side-splitting series depicting the grotty allure of younger generation existence
Rachel Sennott appears on the online meeting and immediately starts an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, seeming truly remorseful. She is only a couple of minutes delayed, she needs to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, in this context, that’s just what one hopes to experience. Besides, it’s pretty unsurprising. Anyone who know her boldly LGBTQ+ and brash project titled Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with the director and appeared in together with close companion the talented actress—will already know that she holds plenty to say, whether about gender, sex, or the pros of forming a high-school fight club. Furthermore, once you finish her new eight-part show I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she carries even more insights on the struggles of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott is a relatable figure for this generation, a tale-end millennial with a knack for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott admits to being a fan, citing the show alongside Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as inspirations for her series, which details the journey of a social media star Tallulah and ally and new talent manager Sennott’s character. However, the biggest spot on the moodboard was reserved for Entourage, the HBO sitcom about a rising A-list actor succeeding in an often-seedy LA scene (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it amid COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and resolved to create a new version 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 says. The concept for this project originated—partly—from personal, initially difficult, transition to Los Angeles and from her cosmic event, a much-talked-about occurrence for enthusiasts. It was a phase that saw her understand significant insights, work-wise and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in New England, Sennott commenced developing and showcasing comedy while studying acting at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she states. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott decided to act independently, performing at amateur nights with Ayo and uploading hysterical (and decidedly) weird online content digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted several females obsessively obsessed with motherhood; a different one envisioned working at the brand Hollister as like being stuck in a horror film. By chance, she met Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually appearing in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a Jewish wake with shades of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her career, she notes, has been contemporaries supporting her, as opposed to the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, continuing with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who were skeptical about her earlier will certainly be kicking themselves today. In what she calls a “astonishingly complete” story, she appears to manifested the perfect project. A few years back she posted content titled about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she parodied film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a series about city dwellers juggling benefits of internet fame (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your client being labeled as being a intoxicated stealer, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). One might tempting to make a program about online fame that was overly idealized—or, worse, one that punched down at those depicted. I Love LA steers clear of each, creating a representation of advantaged young adult 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 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
