Rachel Sennott on the uproarious series depicting that messy glamour of today's youth life
The performer appears on the online meeting and right away launches into an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, seeming really apologetic. She is only a bit behind, she feels compelled to justify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, for a writer, this is just what you want to hear. Besides, it’s pretty unsurprising. Anyone who have seen her boldly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass movie titled Bottoms—which she co-wrote with Emma Seligman and appeared in together with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—can be aware that she possesses much to discuss, ranging from about gender, relationships, or the appeal of starting a high-school combat group. Plus, after watching the recent multi-episode HBO series titled I Love LA, viewers realize that the star holds additional insights regarding the struggles of modern youth (Now in her thirties, she is an honorary member to younger audiences, straddling eras skilled for connecting different age groups).
Influences and Creative Vision
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and Sennott is a fan, referencing it together with the HBO hit, Insecure and the innovative program as influences for her series, which follows the journey of online personality Tallulah and ally who is also aspiring agent Sennott’s character. Notably, the largest spot on the moodboard was reserved for the HBO series, that program focusing on a rising Hollywood star making his way in a corrupt entertainment industry (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott began viewing it throughout lockdown, became “obsessed”, and chose to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she notes. The concept for I Love LA came—partly—from personal, originally difficult, transition to Tinseltown and from the saturn return, a popular occurrence for astrology heads. That period marked a phase that included her learn some big truths, in her career and in private life. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” 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 …”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in the East Coast, the star started developing and showcasing humor while enrolled in theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she explains. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She seized control, taking the stage at amateur nights with Ayo and posting hilarious (and very) unconventional skits online. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on several females intensely obsessed with having babies; another imagined working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being caught in a scary movie. Interestingly, she connected with Emma through the university’s film scene and ultimately appearing in her initial project, Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her journey, she explains, has been contemporaries supporting her, rather than the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, continuing with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who were skeptical about Sennott previously will likely be feeling foolish today. In what she calls a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she appears to created an ideal role. In 2019 she posted content named on LA life on the internet, in which she mocked film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a comedy about city dwellers balancing the perks of online celebrity (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your client being accused of being a drug-addled stealer, and potentially becoming a risky persona non grata). It would be easy to make a program about digital influence that was extremely glamorous—or, worse, one that belittled at its subjects. This show does neither, creating a representation of advantaged twentysomething life that’s honest about the chaos and the shine.
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 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