Rachel Sennott joins the digital interview and at once launches into an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, sounding truly apologetic. She is only a bit late, she needs to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, for a writer, this is exactly what one hopes to experience. Moreover, it’s quite unsurprising. Anyone who have seen her fearlessly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass film Bottoms—that she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and featured in alongside close companion The Bear’s standout—will be aware that she holds much to say, ranging from about roles, sex, or the appeal of starting a high-school fight club. Plus, after watching her recent seasonal program titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she carries even more thoughts regarding the challenges of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, she serves as a relatable figure of the gang, a tale-end millennial adept for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
Parallels to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott admits to being a fan, naming it alongside the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as guides for the project, which tracks the journey of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also new representative Maia. Notably, the largest presence on concept belonged to Entourage, the HBO sitcom focusing on an emerging A-list actor navigating in a corrupt Hollywood (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She began viewing it throughout lockdown, became “captivated”, 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 idea for I Love LA originated—partly—from her own, at first rocky, move to LA and from her cosmic event, a popular phenomenon for astrology heads. It was a time that included her understand some big life lessons, work-wise and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Starting Out
Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott started developing and showcasing humor while studying performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “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. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott seized control, appearing at live shows with Edebiri and posting uproarious (and distinctly) bizarre comedy videos online. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed several females obsessively fixated on motherhood; another imagined working at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being stuck in a thriller. Interestingly, she connected with Seligman through the university’s film scene and eventually featuring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her path, she notes, has been contemporaries supporting her, instead of the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, continuing with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who questioned about Sennott earlier will certainly be kicking themselves today. Through she calls a “astonishingly complete” development, she seems to have achieved her dream vehicle. In 2019 she posted a clip called “it’s LA” on social media, in which she mocked movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a series about Angelenos balancing the perks of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your associate being suspected of being a drug-addled thief, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). Some could easy to make a show about online fame that was extremely glamorous—or, more problematic, one that belittled at the characters. The series does neither, resulting in a depiction of privileged millennial existence that’s candid about the mess and the glamour.
Empathetic Approach
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
