Rachel Sennott joins the video call and immediately starts an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, appearing truly apologetic. Although she's only a bit late, she needs to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, in this context, this is exactly what one hopes to experience. Moreover, it’s fairly unsurprising. Anyone familiar with her unapologetically openly gay and outspoken project Bottoms—that she penned with the director and featured in alongside close companion The Bear’s standout—will be aware that she possesses plenty to say, ranging from about identity, relationships, or the appeal of starting a youth combat group. And, after watching her recent seasonal program I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds even more thoughts about the struggles of young adulthood (At 30, Sennott is a relatable figure for this generation, on the cusp skilled for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and the actress is a fan, citing the show together with the HBO hit, Insecure and Atlanta as influences for I Love LA, which follows the journey of an influencer Tallulah and her friend and new representative portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the most significant presence on concept belonged to the popular sitcom, the program about a rising Hollywood star making his way in a corrupt entertainment industry (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She discovered it amid COVID-19, became “hooked”, and resolved to create a new version 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 explains. The inspiration for I Love LA came—in part—from personal, at first difficult, move to LA and from her saturn return, a much-talked-about occurrence for followers. This represented a time that involved her understand significant life lessons, work-wise and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in the East Coast, Sennott commenced writing and performing comedy while studying theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” 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?”
She took matters into her own hands, performing at amateur nights with her friend and sharing hysterical (and distinctly) unconventional online content digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted several females fetishistically fixated on pregnancy; another portrayed working at the brand Hollister as similar to being stuck in a thriller. By chance, she connected with Emma through campus film circles and ended up featuring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a religious event with echoes of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her journey, she says, has been peers giving her a shot, rather than traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, adding humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Rising Success
Anyone who had doubts regarding her previously will certainly be feeling foolish currently. As part of she describes as a “wild, full-circle” development, she seems to have manifested the perfect project. Previously she shared a video called on LA life on social media, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a comedy about LA residents balancing the perks of online celebrity (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being suspected of being a drug-addled criminal, and perhaps becoming a risky outcast). One might tempting to create a show about online fame that was extremely idealized—or, worse, one that mocked at its subjects. I Love LA does neither, making for a representation of privileged millennial life that’s candid about the chaos and the shine.
Empathetic Approach
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
