Rachel Sennott appears on the digital interview and immediately begins an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, appearing really apologetic. She is only a bit behind, she feels compelled to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, for a writer, that’s just what is ideal to hear. Additionally, it’s pretty expected. Anyone familiar with her unapologetically queer and brash movie titled Bottoms—which Sennott penned with the director and starred in alongside close companion the talented actress—can already know that Sennott holds much to discuss, ranging from on gender, sex, or the merits of forming a teen combat group. Furthermore, once you finish the new eight-part program titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she has further perspectives on the challenges of young adulthood (At 30, she is a bridge of the gang, straddling eras with a knack for straddling different age groups).
Influences and Creative Vision
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and the actress admits to being enthusiastic, citing the show alongside Sex and the City, Insecure and Atlanta as influences for her series, which follows the struggles of online personality Tallulah and ally and new representative portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the most significant influence on concept was reserved for Entourage, the program about an emerging Hollywood star navigating in a gritty LA scene (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She began viewing it amid lockdown, became “obsessed”, and chose to put her own twist on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she says. The concept for this project emerged—partly—from firsthand, at first rocky, transition to Tinseltown and from her saturn return, a much-talked-about phenomenon for followers. That period marked a time that included her understand significant truths, work-wise and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in New England, Sennott started writing and performing stand-up while pursuing performance at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at amateur nights with her friend and sharing hysterical (and distinctly) unconventional online content on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on characters intensely obsessed with having babies; a different one portrayed being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being trapped in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she met Emma through the university’s film scene and ended up starring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a religious event with echoes of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her journey, she says, has been peers offering opportunities, rather than traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, adding with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who had doubts about her earlier will likely be regretting it currently. Through she describes as a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she appears to created her dream vehicle. Previously she shared a video named “it’s LA” on social media, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a show about LA residents balancing the perks of online celebrity (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your friend being suspected of being a substance-abusing stealer, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). One might simple to make a series about internet celebrity that was horribly glamorous—or, worse, one that belittled at its subjects. I Love LA does neither, creating a depiction of advantaged millennial living that’s honest about the mess and the glamour.
Empathetic Approach
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
