The actress and writer exploring the side-splitting series portraying that grotty allure of today's youth lifestyle
Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and at once starts an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, sounding genuinely remorseful. Despite being only slightly delayed, she needs to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, during an interview, that’s precisely what you want to encounter. Moreover, it’s quite predictable. Those who know her fearlessly LGBTQ+ and outspoken project Bottoms—which Sennott penned with the director and starred in together with close companion the talented actress—would be aware that Sennott holds a lot to discuss, ranging from about identity, relationships, or the merits of forming a high-school fight club. And, once you finish her new multi-episode show titled I Love LA, viewers realize that the star holds further insights regarding the challenges of modern youth (As a millennial, she serves as a relatable figure to younger audiences, on the cusp skilled for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
Parallels to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott readily acknowledges enthusiastic, naming it in addition to Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as guides for her series, which follows the travails of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also new agent portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the largest spot on concept went to the HBO series, the show depicting an up-and-coming A-list actor making his way in an often-seedy entertainment industry (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott started watching it amid lockdown, became “captivated”, 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 explains. The inspiration for the series emerged—to some extent—from personal, at first difficult, transition to Los Angeles and from the saturn return, a popular occurrence for astrology heads. This represented a time that included her learn major insights, work-wise and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “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
Raised in Connecticut, Sennott began creating and acting humor while pursuing performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” 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 seized control, taking the stage at open mics with her friend and uploading hysterical (and very) bizarre online content on the internet. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on several females obsessively obsessed with motherhood; a different one envisioned working at the brand Hollister as like being stuck in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Seligman through the university’s film scene and ended up starring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her journey, she explains, has been contemporaries supporting her, rather than established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she confirms, continuing with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who were skeptical about her earlier will likely be kicking themselves now. As part of she describes as a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she appears to manifested the perfect project. A few years back she posted content named “it’s LA” online, in which she lampooned film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a series about Angelenos managing advantages of online celebrity (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being labeled as being a intoxicated thief, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). One might easy to create a series about internet celebrity that was horribly aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at its subjects. This show does neither, creating a depiction of privileged millennial existence that’s honest about the mess and the glamour.
Balanced Perspective
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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