Rachel Sennott appears on the digital interview and immediately begins an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, appearing truly regretful. Despite being only slightly late, 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!” Fortunately, in this context, that’s precisely what is ideal to encounter. Moreover, it’s pretty expected. Those who have seen her unapologetically queer and outspoken project titled Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with the director and featured in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—would already know that Sennott possesses plenty to share, ranging from about gender, intimacy, or the pros of starting a teen fight club. Plus, once you finish her latest eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, viewers realize that the star carries further perspectives regarding the challenges of modern youth (At 30, Sennott represents a bridge to younger audiences, straddling eras skilled for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, referencing the show alongside the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as inspirations for the project, which follows the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and aspiring talent manager portrayed by Sennott. However, the most significant influence on creative vision went to Entourage, the program about an emerging Hollywood star succeeding in a corrupt entertainment industry (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott began viewing it during lockdown, became “captivated”, and decided to add a fresh perspective on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“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 came—partly—from firsthand, initially rocky, transition to Los Angeles and from the saturn return, a frequently discussed phenomenon for enthusiasts. This represented an era that involved her understand some big truths, professionally 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 resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Starting Out
Raised in New England, the star started writing and performing humor while studying performance at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at live shows with Ayo and uploading hysterical (and distinctly) bizarre online content on the internet. One, Baby Cult, followed characters fetishistically obsessed with motherhood; another envisioned being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being stuck in a horror film. By chance, she encountered Seligman through NYU’s movie community and eventually starring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her journey, she notes, has been people her own age supporting her, rather than traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, adding amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Individuals who had doubts about Sennott previously will surely be kicking themselves currently. As part of she labels a “incredibly circular” development, she seems to have created the perfect project. In 2019 she posted a clip titled on LA life online, in which she mocked film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a series about Angelenos balancing advantages of digital stardom (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your client being suspected of being a intoxicated stealer, and potentially becoming a unreliable persona non grata). It would be easy to create a series about internet celebrity that was extremely idealized—or, worse, one that belittled at the characters. I Love LA does neither, creating a depiction of advantaged twentysomething living that’s honest about the grot and the appeal.
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 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
