Rachel Sennott enters the digital interview and at once launches into an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, sounding truly remorseful. She is only slightly late, she needs to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, in this context, this is precisely what is ideal to hear. Besides, it’s fairly expected. Anyone who have seen the boldly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass film Bottoms—which she collaborated on with the director and starred in alongside close companion The Bear’s standout—would already know that Sennott possesses plenty to discuss, ranging from on gender, intimacy, or the appeal of forming a youth fight club. Furthermore, after watching her latest multi-episode show I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries even more perspectives on the darker side of young adulthood (As a millennial, Sennott serves as a relatable figure for this generation, a tale-end millennial skilled for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and the actress is an admirer, citing the show together with Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as inspirations for the project, which follows the travails of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also fledgling talent manager Maia. However, the biggest spot on creative vision belonged to the popular sitcom, the program focusing on a rising celebrity succeeding in a gritty entertainment industry (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott started watching it during lockdown, became “obsessed”, and decided to put her own twist on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she notes. The inspiration for I Love LA originated—to some extent—from personal, at first rocky, transition to Tinseltown and from her cosmic event, a much-talked-about phenomenon for astrology heads. That period marked an era that included her grasp some big life lessons, work-wise and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Humble Origins
Raised in Connecticut, Sennott began writing and performing stand-up while enrolled in theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
She took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at open mics with her friend and posting hysterical (and distinctly) unconventional comedy videos on the internet. One, Baby Cult, centered on several females intensely fixated on pregnancy; a different one imagined being employed at a trendy retail outlet as like being stuck in a horror film. By chance, she connected with Emma through campus film circles and ultimately featuring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a funeral gathering with hints of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her path, she notes, has been peers supporting her, instead of traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she repeats, continuing humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Rising Success
Those who had doubts regarding her earlier will likely be feeling foolish currently. In what she calls a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she seems to have manifested her dream vehicle. A few years back she shared content called about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she mocked movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a series about city dwellers balancing advantages of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your client being labeled as being a intoxicated thief, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). Some could easy to make a series about internet celebrity that was horribly aspirational—or, worse, one that punched down at the characters. This show steers clear of each, resulting in a representation of privileged millennial life that’s candid about the grot and the glamour.
Balanced Perspective
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” she comments. “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
