Rachel Sennott joins the digital interview and at once starts an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, seeming truly regretful. Although she's only a couple of minutes delayed, she wants to clarify. “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, in this context, this is exactly what one hopes to hear. Additionally, it’s fairly unsurprising. Viewers familiar with her fearlessly LGBTQ+ and brash movie Bottoms—which she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and appeared in alongside collaborator the talented actress—can already know that she has plenty to discuss, whether on gender, relationships, or the merits of forming a high-school combat group. Furthermore, by the end the latest seasonal program I Love LA, viewers realize that she carries additional perspectives about the darker side of modern youth (At 30, she is an honorary member to younger audiences, on the cusp adept for straddling different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and the actress readily acknowledges an admirer, naming the show alongside the classic series, Insecure and the innovative program as inspirations for I Love LA, which follows the travails of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also new talent manager portrayed by Sennott. However, the most significant influence on the moodboard was reserved for the popular sitcom, that show about an up-and-coming Hollywood star navigating in a corrupt Hollywood (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott began viewing it during COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and chose to create a new version 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—partly—from personal, at first rocky, relocation to Tinseltown and from the astrological phase, a much-talked-about phenomenon for enthusiasts. This represented a phase that involved her learn some big life lessons, in her career and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in the East Coast, the star began writing and performing comedy while pursuing acting at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She seized control, taking the stage at amateur nights with Edebiri and sharing hilarious (and very) bizarre online content digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted several females intensely drawn to pregnancy; a different one envisioned working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being caught in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Emma through campus film circles and ultimately featuring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a funeral gathering with hints of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her career, she notes, has been peers supporting her, as opposed to traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she repeats, continuing amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Rising Success
Individuals who questioned about Sennott previously will certainly be feeling foolish today. As part of she calls a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she has created an ideal role. Previously she posted a video called “it’s LA” on social media, in which she lampooned film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a comedy about city dwellers managing benefits of internet fame (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being labeled as being a substance-abusing criminal, and possibly becoming a unreliable persona non grata). One might easy to make a show about online fame that was extremely idealized—or, worse, one that punched down at the characters. I Love LA avoids both, resulting in a portrait of advantaged millennial living that’s candid about the grot and the glamour.
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
