The actress and writer discussing the hilarious show depicting the chaotic glamour of today's youth existence
Rachel Sennott joins the online meeting and right away starts an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, sounding truly remorseful. Despite being only a bit delayed, she needs to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s exactly what one hopes to encounter. Besides, it’s quite expected. Viewers who know her fearlessly LGBTQ+ and brash project Bottoms—that she penned with Emma Seligman and appeared in alongside collaborator The Bear’s standout—would be aware that she possesses a lot to share, be it about roles, sex, or the pros of forming a high-school fight club. And, after watching the new multi-episode program titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star has further perspectives regarding the darker side of modern youth (Now in her thirties, Sennott is an honorary member for this generation, on the cusp with a knack for connecting both generations).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott readily acknowledges a fan, citing the show alongside Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as guides for the project, which tracks the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion and new agent Sennott’s character. Notably, the biggest influence on concept belonged to Entourage, the HBO sitcom focusing on a rising celebrity making his way in an often-seedy LA scene (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She began viewing it throughout COVID-19, became “hooked”, 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 notes. The concept for this project emerged—partly—from her own, originally difficult, move to Tinseltown and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about phenomenon for enthusiasts. This represented a time that involved her understand major life lessons, work-wise and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” 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
Brought up in the East Coast, the star commenced developing and showcasing comedy while enrolled in acting at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She decided to act independently, taking the stage at live shows with Edebiri and posting hysterical (and distinctly) bizarre online content digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on several females fetishistically obsessed with pregnancy; another portrayed working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being stuck in a horror film. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through campus film circles and ultimately appearing in her first film, Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a religious event with hints of the intense thriller. The central motif of her path, she notes, has been peers supporting her, as opposed to traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, stating humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Rising Success
Anyone who questioned about Sennott then will likely be regretting it currently. In what she labels a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she appears to achieved an ideal role. A few years back she shared a clip called “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she mocked film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a series about Angelenos managing advantages of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being accused of being a drug-addled thief, and potentially becoming a risky outcast). One might simple to make a series about digital influence that was horribly idealized—or, worse, one that belittled at those depicted. The series avoids both, resulting in a depiction of affluent twentysomething living that’s candid about the mess 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