Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and right away begins an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, seeming truly regretful. She is only a bit late, she wants to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, for a writer, that’s precisely what is ideal to encounter. Besides, it’s fairly unsurprising. Anyone familiar with the boldly queer and outspoken movie Bottoms—that she collaborated on with the director and appeared in alongside close companion Ayo Edebiri—will be aware that Sennott holds a lot to say, whether about identity, sex, or the appeal of starting a youth brawl society. Furthermore, once you finish her recent multi-episode show titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she has further perspectives about the darker side of modern youth (At 30, she serves as a relatable figure of the gang, straddling eras skilled for bridging different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and the actress admits to being enthusiastic, referencing it together with the classic series, Insecure and Atlanta as inspirations for her series, which tracks the journey of an influencer Tallulah and close companion who is also new talent manager Maia. Notably, the most significant presence on the moodboard belonged to the HBO series, the program focusing on an emerging Hollywood star succeeding in an often-seedy entertainment industry (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it throughout the pandemic, became “hooked”, and resolved to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she notes. The inspiration for this project originated—in part—from firsthand, at first difficult, move to Los Angeles and from her saturn return, a popular phenomenon for followers. That period marked a phase that saw her learn significant insights, work-wise and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Starting Out
Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott started developing and showcasing humor while enrolled in theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at live shows with Edebiri and posting hilarious (and distinctly) unconventional comedy videos digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women obsessively drawn to motherhood; a different one imagined being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being stuck in a thriller. By chance, she connected with Emma through campus film circles and ended up starring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a religious event with echoes of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her path, she notes, has been contemporaries supporting her, rather than the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, continuing humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who were skeptical about Sennott earlier will certainly be regretting it currently. As part of she calls a “astonishingly complete” development, she has created an ideal role. In 2019 she posted content titled on LA life on the internet, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a show about Angelenos balancing advantages of internet fame (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being accused of being a drug-addled thief, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). One might simple to create a series about internet celebrity that was extremely idealized—or, more problematic, one that belittled at the characters. I Love LA avoids both, making for a depiction of privileged millennial living that’s frank about the mess and the glamour.
Nuanced Portrayal
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” she observes. “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
