The actress and writer on her side-splitting comedy depicting that messy allure of today's youth life
Rachel Sennott joins the digital interview and right away launches into an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, appearing genuinely apologetic. Despite being only slightly delayed, she feels compelled to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, in this context, this is just what you want to encounter. Besides, it’s quite predictable. Viewers familiar with the boldly queer and brash movie Bottoms—which she co-wrote with her creative partner and appeared in alongside her friend The Bear’s standout—can already know that Sennott holds a lot to discuss, be it about roles, intimacy, or the pros of creating a teen fight club. Plus, by the end her new seasonal HBO series I Love LA, viewers realize that she holds additional insights regarding the darker side of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott is a bridge to younger audiences, straddling eras with a knack for bridging different age groups).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and the actress is a fan, referencing it in addition to the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as guides for her series, which follows the travails of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also new agent Maia. Notably, the most significant influence on the moodboard went to the HBO series, that show depicting a rising celebrity navigating in a corrupt LA scene (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She began viewing it throughout the pandemic, became “captivated”, and decided to put her own twist on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she notes. The inspiration for the series came—to some extent—from personal, originally fractious, move to Los Angeles and from her saturn return, a frequently discussed event for astrology heads. That period marked a time that included her grasp significant truths, in her career and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Raised in New England, the star began creating and acting humor while pursuing acting at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “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, taking the stage at amateur nights with her friend and sharing hilarious (and very) unconventional skits digitally. One, Baby Cult, followed a group of women obsessively obsessed with pregnancy; a different one imagined being employed at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being caught in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she met Emma through campus film circles and eventually starring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her career, she says, has been peers supporting her, instead of established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she confirms, adding humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Manifesting Dreams
Individuals who questioned about her previously will certainly be feeling foolish today. As part of she calls a “wild, full-circle” story, she seems to have manifested an ideal role. In 2019 she posted a clip named on LA life online, in which she mocked movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a comedy about Angelenos juggling benefits of internet fame (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being labeled as being a drug-addled stealer, and perhaps becoming a risky pariah). Some could simple to produce a series about online fame that was overly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at those depicted. This show avoids both, creating a representation of privileged millennial living that’s honest about the mess and the shine.
Balanced Perspective
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” she says. “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
