Rachel Sennott discussing her uproarious show depicting the grotty allure of Gen Z life
The performer enters the video call and at once launches into an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, sounding really regretful. She is only slightly late, she wants 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!” Thankfully, during an interview, that’s just what one hopes to hear. Additionally, it’s fairly predictable. Anyone who have seen the unapologetically queer and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—which she co-wrote with the director and starred in with collaborator The Bear’s standout—will be aware that Sennott holds a lot to share, whether about gender, relationships, or the appeal of starting a youth brawl society. Furthermore, by the end her recent eight-part HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds additional perspectives about the darker side of modern youth (At 30, Sennott serves as a relatable figure for this generation, a tale-end millennial skilled for connecting different age groups).
Influences and Creative Vision
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and Sennott admits to being an admirer, referencing the show together with the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as influences for the project, which tracks the struggles of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also new representative Maia. Perhaps, the most significant spot on creative vision was reserved for Entourage, the program about a rising celebrity navigating in a corrupt LA scene (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott discovered it during COVID-19, became “captivated”, and resolved to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she explains. The concept for I Love LA originated—to some extent—from firsthand, originally fractious, transition to LA and from her cosmic event, a frequently discussed occurrence for enthusiasts. It was an era that involved her understand major truths, work-wise and individually. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “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
Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott commenced developing and showcasing stand-up while enrolled in acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She took matters into her own hands, performing at live shows with Ayo and sharing uproarious (and decidedly) weird comedy videos digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women fetishistically obsessed with having babies; another imagined working at a trendy retail outlet as like being caught in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ended up appearing in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a Jewish wake with hints of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her path, she explains, has been peers offering opportunities, instead of the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, stating amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Individuals who were skeptical about Sennott previously will surely be kicking themselves today. In what she labels a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she has manifested an ideal role. In 2019 she uploaded content called on LA life online, in which she lampooned film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a show about Angelenos balancing the perks of digital stardom (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being suspected of being a drug-addled stealer, and potentially becoming a unreliable outcast). One might easy to create a series about online fame that was overly aspirational—or, more problematic, one that mocked at its subjects. The series does neither, making for a representation of affluent twentysomething life that’s honest about the mess and the glamour.
Balanced Perspective
“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