Rachel Sennott joins the digital interview and right away launches into an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, sounding genuinely regretful. Although she's only a couple of minutes delayed, she feels compelled to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, during an interview, that’s precisely what one hopes to hear. Moreover, it’s pretty predictable. Viewers who have seen the unapologetically queer and brash film Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with her creative partner and starred in together with collaborator the talented actress—will be aware that she holds much to say, whether about identity, intimacy, or the appeal of creating a high-school fight club. And, once you finish the new multi-episode program titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star carries further insights on the darker side of Gen Z life (As a millennial, she is a bridge for this generation, straddling eras adept for connecting different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and Sennott admits to being a fan, citing it together with the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as influences for the project, which follows the journey of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and new agent portrayed by Sennott. However, the most significant spot on concept went to Entourage, the show focusing on an up-and-coming A-list actor making his way in an often-seedy entertainment industry (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it throughout lockdown, became “hooked”, and decided to add a fresh perspective 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 explains. The concept for this project originated—to some extent—from personal, originally difficult, relocation to Tinseltown and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about event for followers. It was a time that involved her understand some big life lessons, 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 resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Humble Origins
Brought up in the East Coast, the star started developing and showcasing stand-up while enrolled in acting at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott decided to act independently, appearing at live shows with Edebiri and uploading uproarious (and decidedly) bizarre skits online. One, Baby Cult, followed a group of women obsessively obsessed with having babies; a different one imagined being employed at a trendy retail outlet as like being stuck in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Seligman through campus film circles and ended up featuring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a religious event with shades of the intense thriller. The big theme of her path, she says, has been contemporaries supporting her, rather than established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, adding humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who had doubts about her previously will certainly be feeling foolish now. In what she calls a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she seems to have achieved the perfect project. Previously she posted a clip called about Los Angeles on social media, in which she mocked movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a series about city dwellers juggling the perks of internet fame (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your client being labeled as being a intoxicated thief, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). Some could easy to create a program about internet celebrity that was horribly glamorous—or, worse, one that punched down at those depicted. This show does neither, making for a portrait of advantaged twentysomething living that’s honest about the mess and the glamour.
Empathetic Approach
“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
