Rachel Sennott joins the video call and at once launches into an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, appearing really remorseful. She is only slightly delayed, she needs to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, in this context, that’s just what you want to encounter. Moreover, it’s pretty predictable. Viewers familiar with the boldly LGBTQ+ and outspoken project titled Bottoms—which Sennott penned with her creative partner and appeared in with close companion The Bear’s standout—would be aware that Sennott holds a lot to share, whether on gender, relationships, or the merits of forming a high-school brawl society. And, by the end the latest eight-part show titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she holds even more thoughts regarding the challenges of young adulthood (At 30, Sennott serves as a relatable figure for this generation, on the cusp adept for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Artistic Direction
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and the actress admits to being enthusiastic, citing the show alongside Sex and the City, Insecure and Atlanta as inspirations for her series, which details the journey of online personality Tallulah and ally and new talent manager portrayed by Sennott. However, the biggest presence on creative vision was reserved for the popular sitcom, the show depicting a rising celebrity navigating in an often-seedy LA scene (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She discovered it throughout the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and resolved to add a fresh perspective on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The idea for this project emerged—to some extent—from her own, initially fractious, move to Los Angeles and from the saturn return, a much-talked-about phenomenon for enthusiasts. This represented a phase that involved her understand significant truths, work-wise and personally. “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. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in New England, Sennott started creating and acting humor while enrolled in 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 explains. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She seized control, taking the stage at amateur nights with Ayo and posting hilarious (and very) weird skits online. One, Baby Cult, followed a group of women obsessively fixated on motherhood; another imagined being employed at a trendy retail outlet as like being trapped in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and ultimately starring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her career, she notes, has been peers offering opportunities, as opposed to the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, stating amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Individuals who were skeptical regarding Sennott earlier will surely be feeling foolish currently. Through she labels a “wild, full-circle” story, she seems to have created the perfect project. A few years back she uploaded content titled “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a show about Angelenos managing benefits of digital stardom (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your friend being labeled as being a drug-addled thief, and perhaps becoming a risky persona non grata). It would be tempting to create a show about digital influence that was horribly idealized—or, worse, one that mocked at those depicted. I Love LA does neither, creating a depiction of privileged twentysomething living that’s candid about the grot and the glamour.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
