Rachel Sennott joins the online meeting and at once begins an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, appearing truly remorseful. Despite being only a bit late, she feels compelled to clarify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, in this context, this is just what one hopes to encounter. Besides, it’s pretty predictable. Those familiar with the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and brash film titled Bottoms—that she co-wrote with her creative partner and featured in with collaborator the talented actress—will already know that she holds much to discuss, be it about identity, sex, or the pros of starting a youth combat group. And, after watching her latest eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, it is clear that she has further insights regarding the darker side of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott is an honorary member to younger audiences, straddling eras adept for bridging different age groups).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
Parallels to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, naming it in addition to Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as influences for I Love LA, which details the travails of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and aspiring talent manager Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the largest presence on the moodboard went to the HBO series, that HBO sitcom focusing on a rising celebrity making his way in a corrupt entertainment industry (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott started watching it throughout the pandemic, became “hooked”, and resolved to add a fresh perspective 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 idea for this project originated—in part—from personal, initially fractious, relocation to LA and from the cosmic event, a frequently discussed phenomenon for followers. That period marked a phase that saw her understand major insights, professionally and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” 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 was almost like these biblical tests …”
Humble Origins
Brought up in New England, the star began creating and acting stand-up while enrolled in acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She took matters into her own hands, performing at live shows with her friend and uploading uproarious (and distinctly) weird online content online. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed characters intensely obsessed with pregnancy; another portrayed being employed at the brand Hollister as similar to being caught in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Seligman through the university’s film scene and ultimately featuring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her path, she explains, has been peers giving her a shot, rather than the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she confirms, adding humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who had doubts regarding Sennott then will surely be regretting it now. Through she calls a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she seems to have achieved the perfect project. Previously she uploaded a clip called “it’s LA” online, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a series about Angelenos managing benefits of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being suspected of being a substance-abusing stealer, and perhaps becoming a unreliable outcast). Some could simple to create a show about internet celebrity that was overly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at its subjects. This show avoids both, resulting in a depiction of affluent millennial living that’s frank about the mess and the appeal.
Nuanced Portrayal
“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
