Rachel Sennott on her uproarious show about that grotty allure of Gen Z existence
The star enters the online meeting and right away begins an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, sounding genuinely regretful. Although she's only a bit behind, she feels compelled to clarify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s just what one hopes to encounter. Moreover, it’s pretty expected. Anyone who know her unapologetically LGBTQ+ and outspoken film Bottoms—which she collaborated on with the director and appeared in with close companion Ayo Edebiri—will be aware that Sennott possesses a lot to say, ranging from on roles, intimacy, or the merits of starting a high-school fight club. Furthermore, by the end her new multi-episode program titled I Love LA, viewers realize that the star carries even more insights about the challenges of modern youth (Now in her thirties, she serves as a relatable figure to younger audiences, straddling eras with a knack for connecting different age groups).
Influences and Creative Vision
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and Sennott admits to being a fan, naming it together with Sex and the City, Insecure and Atlanta as influences for the project, which details the travails of online personality Tallulah and ally who is also new agent Sennott’s character. Notably, the most significant influence on the moodboard belonged to the popular sitcom, that show depicting an emerging Hollywood star succeeding in a corrupt entertainment industry (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She discovered it during the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and decided to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The inspiration for this project originated—to some extent—from her own, at first fractious, move to Tinseltown and from her cosmic event, a much-talked-about phenomenon for followers. It was an era that involved her grasp major life lessons, in her career and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “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
Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott started creating and acting comedy while studying theatre at a prestigious arts school. “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.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, performing at live shows with her friend and posting hysterical (and decidedly) unconventional skits on the internet. One, Baby Cult, centered on a group of women obsessively fixated on pregnancy; another portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being caught in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she met Seligman through the university’s film scene and eventually starring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her path, she says, has been people her own age offering opportunities, instead of traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, continuing humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who questioned regarding her then will certainly be regretting it today. As part of she describes as a “astonishingly complete” story, she appears to manifested an ideal role. In 2019 she posted a clip called about Los Angeles on social media, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about Angelenos balancing advantages of digital stardom (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being labeled as being a intoxicated criminal, and potentially becoming a unreliable pariah). It would be simple to create a series about online fame that was horribly aspirational—or, worse, one that belittled at the characters. I Love LA does neither, creating a representation of affluent young adult living that’s honest about the chaos and the shine.
Nuanced Portrayal
“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