Rachel Sennott joins the video call and immediately starts an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, seeming really remorseful. She is only a bit late, she needs to clarify. “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 exactly what is ideal to experience. Moreover, it’s quite predictable. Viewers familiar with her fearlessly queer and brash project titled Bottoms—that she penned with Emma Seligman and featured in with her friend the talented actress—can understand that Sennott possesses plenty to say, ranging from on gender, intimacy, or the pros of starting a teen fight club. Furthermore, once you finish her recent eight-part show titled I Love LA, viewers realize that the star has additional insights regarding the challenges of modern youth (At 30, Sennott represents a relatable figure of the gang, on the cusp adept for straddling different age groups).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and the actress readily acknowledges enthusiastic, citing the show alongside the classic series, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for her series, which tracks the struggles of a social media star Tallulah and her friend and aspiring agent Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the biggest influence on the moodboard was reserved for the HBO series, that HBO sitcom about an emerging celebrity making his way in a corrupt entertainment industry (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott started watching it throughout COVID-19, became “hooked”, and chose to add a fresh perspective 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 says. The concept for I Love LA came—partly—from personal, initially difficult, transition to Los Angeles and from her saturn return, a popular phenomenon for astrology heads. This represented an era that involved her understand significant life lessons, professionally and individually. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Starting Out
Raised in New England, Sennott commenced writing and performing humor while pursuing acting at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
She decided to act independently, taking the stage at open mics with her friend and uploading hysterical (and distinctly) weird comedy videos online. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted characters obsessively fixated on having babies; a different one portrayed working at a trendy retail outlet as like being trapped in a horror film. Interestingly, she encountered Seligman through the university’s film scene and ended up appearing in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a religious event with shades of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her path, she explains, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, instead of traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she repeats, adding amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who were skeptical regarding Sennott then will certainly be kicking themselves currently. As part of she describes as a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she seems to have manifested the perfect project. In 2019 she uploaded content named on LA life on social media, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a show about Angelenos managing benefits of online celebrity (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being labeled as being a substance-abusing criminal, and potentially becoming a risky persona non grata). Some could simple to make a series about digital influence that was overly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at its subjects. This show avoids both, resulting in a depiction of advantaged millennial existence that’s frank about the grot and the shine.
Empathetic Approach
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
