Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and at once launches into an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, sounding really remorseful. Although she's only a bit late, she wants to explain. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, in this context, that’s just what one hopes to experience. Moreover, it’s fairly predictable. Anyone who have seen her unapologetically LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass film Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with Emma Seligman and starred in alongside collaborator The Bear’s standout—can understand that Sennott has much to share, ranging from on identity, sex, or the pros of forming a teen fight club. Plus, by the end her recent multi-episode HBO series titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star holds additional insights on the darker side of modern youth (Now in her thirties, she serves as a bridge of the gang, straddling eras skilled for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Artistic Direction
Parallels to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress is a fan, citing the show together with Sex and the City, Insecure and the innovative program as inspirations for the project, which follows the struggles of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also new agent Sennott’s character. However, the most significant presence on the moodboard went to Entourage, the show focusing on an up-and-coming celebrity navigating in an often-seedy Hollywood (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott discovered it amid COVID-19, became “captivated”, and resolved to add a fresh perspective on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she notes. The idea for this project originated—to some extent—from her own, initially difficult, move to Los Angeles and from her cosmic event, a frequently discussed event for astrology heads. This represented an era that involved her understand significant insights, professionally and in private life. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” 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
Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott started creating and acting comedy while studying theatre at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She decided to act independently, performing at open mics with her friend and uploading uproarious (and very) unconventional skits digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on characters obsessively drawn to pregnancy; another envisioned working at the brand Hollister as similar to being caught in a horror film. By chance, she met Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up featuring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a religious event with echoes of the intense thriller. The central motif of her career, she explains, has been peers giving her a shot, as opposed to traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, continuing amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who had doubts about her then will certainly be regretting it now. In what she calls a “astonishingly complete” story, she seems to have manifested an ideal role. Previously she shared a video titled “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she parodied film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a show about city dwellers juggling benefits of digital stardom (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your associate being suspected of being a intoxicated stealer, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). It would be tempting to create a program about internet celebrity that was extremely aspirational—or, more problematic, one that belittled at its subjects. The series does neither, resulting in a representation of advantaged young adult existence that’s honest about the grot and the glamour.
Empathetic Approach
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
