Rachel Sennott discussing the hilarious comedy about that grotty appeal of today's youth lifestyle
The star appears on the online meeting and right away begins an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, sounding really apologetic. She is only slightly delayed, she feels compelled to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, in this context, that’s precisely what you want to hear. Additionally, it’s pretty expected. Viewers familiar with her fearlessly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass project Bottoms—that she penned with her creative partner and featured in with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—would understand that she holds a lot to share, whether on roles, relationships, or the pros of forming a high-school fight club. And, by the end her new multi-episode program titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star has even more thoughts about the struggles of Gen Z life (At 30, she serves as a relatable figure of the gang, straddling eras with a knack for straddling both generations).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott readily acknowledges enthusiastic, naming the show alongside the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as inspirations for her series, which tracks the travails of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and new talent manager Maia. Perhaps, the largest spot on the moodboard went to the popular sitcom, that HBO sitcom focusing on an up-and-coming celebrity navigating in a gritty Hollywood (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She discovered it throughout lockdown, became “hooked”, and chose 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 notes. The idea for the series came—partly—from her own, at first rocky, relocation to LA and from her saturn return, a popular phenomenon for enthusiasts. This represented an era that saw her understand significant life lessons, professionally and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in the East Coast, Sennott began creating and acting stand-up while studying acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott seized control, performing at live shows with Ayo and uploading hysterical (and distinctly) unconventional comedy videos on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, followed a group of women intensely obsessed with motherhood; another portrayed working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being caught in a thriller. Interestingly, she met Seligman through campus film circles and ultimately featuring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her career, she says, has been peers supporting her, instead of established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, stating humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Individuals who were skeptical regarding her earlier will likely be feeling foolish currently. In what she describes as a “astonishingly complete” story, she has manifested the perfect project. A few years back she uploaded a video called “it’s LA” on social media, in which she parodied film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a comedy about LA residents managing advantages of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being accused of being a intoxicated thief, and perhaps becoming a unreliable persona non grata). It would be easy to produce a program about online fame that was overly idealized—or, more problematic, one that punched down at its subjects. This show avoids both, creating a depiction of advantaged young adult living that’s honest about the mess and the appeal.
Nuanced Portrayal
“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