Rachel Sennott appears on the online meeting and right away begins an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, seeming truly remorseful. Despite being only a couple of minutes delayed, she feels compelled to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, during an interview, that’s precisely what is ideal to experience. Additionally, it’s fairly expected. Anyone familiar with her unapologetically openly gay and unapologetically crass movie Bottoms—which she penned with her creative partner and appeared in with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—can already know that she holds plenty to share, whether on roles, relationships, or the appeal of starting a high-school combat group. Plus, by the end the new seasonal HBO series titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star has even more insights about the darker side of modern youth (As a millennial, she serves as a relatable figure for this generation, on the cusp adept for connecting both generations).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott readily acknowledges a fan, referencing the show together with Sex and the City, Insecure and the innovative program as inspirations for the project, which details the struggles of an influencer Tallulah and ally and fledgling agent Sennott’s character. However, the most significant influence on creative vision was reserved for the popular sitcom, that program focusing on a rising Hollywood star making his way in a corrupt Hollywood (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She discovered it throughout the pandemic, became “hooked”, and chose to put her own twist 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 concept for this project emerged—in part—from personal, initially rocky, transition to LA and from the saturn return, a popular occurrence for followers. This represented a time that saw her understand major truths, work-wise 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…”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott began writing and performing stand-up while pursuing acting at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “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 open mics with Edebiri and sharing hysterical (and very) bizarre skits online. One, titled Baby Cult, followed characters intensely obsessed with motherhood; a different one envisioned working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being caught in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and ultimately appearing in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a religious event with echoes of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her career, she says, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, instead of traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, stating humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who questioned about Sennott previously will certainly be kicking themselves currently. As part of she labels a “wild, full-circle” story, she appears to created the perfect project. Previously she shared a video titled “it’s LA” on social media, in which she parodied movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a show about city dwellers managing benefits of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your associate being suspected of being a drug-addled thief, and possibly becoming a unreliable pariah). Some could easy to produce a series about internet celebrity that was extremely aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at those depicted. The series steers clear of each, creating a representation of affluent young adult living that’s frank about the grot 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
