Rachel Sennott on the side-splitting series about the grotty allure of younger generation existence
The performer joins the digital interview and at once launches into an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, sounding genuinely remorseful. Despite being only a couple of minutes delayed, she feels compelled to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, in this context, this is just what one hopes to encounter. Moreover, it’s fairly predictable. Viewers who know her fearlessly queer and outspoken film titled Bottoms—which Sennott penned with the director and appeared in together with collaborator The Bear’s standout—can understand that she holds much to discuss, be it about identity, sex, or the pros of starting a youth combat group. And, once you finish the new eight-part program titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star has further thoughts on the challenges of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott serves as a relatable figure to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial adept for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Creative Vision
Parallels to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress readily acknowledges an admirer, citing the show in addition to the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as influences for her series, which tracks the travails of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also aspiring talent manager Maia. Perhaps, the biggest influence on creative vision went to the HBO series, the show focusing on an emerging A-list actor navigating in a gritty entertainment industry (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She started watching it during COVID-19, became “hooked”, and decided to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The concept for the series came—to some extent—from firsthand, initially fractious, relocation to Los Angeles and from the astrological phase, a popular occurrence for enthusiasts. This represented an era that included her understand major life lessons, work-wise and individually. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” 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
Brought up in New England, Sennott commenced developing and showcasing comedy while studying acting at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” 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.”
She decided to act independently, performing at live shows with her friend and sharing uproarious (and very) bizarre skits on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, followed several females fetishistically obsessed with pregnancy; a different one imagined working at the brand Hollister as similar to being caught in a thriller. By chance, she met Emma through campus film circles and eventually featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her journey, she says, has been contemporaries supporting her, rather than traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she repeats, continuing amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who had doubts regarding her previously will likely be kicking themselves currently. Through she describes as a “incredibly circular” development, she seems to have manifested an ideal role. Previously she shared a clip named “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a series about Angelenos balancing the perks of digital stardom (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your client being suspected of being a drug-addled thief, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). Some could tempting to make a show about digital influence that was horribly aspirational—or, worse, one that mocked at those depicted. The series does neither, making for a depiction of advantaged millennial life that’s frank about the chaos and the appeal.
Empathetic Approach
“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