🔗 Share this article

Rachel Sennott appears on the digital interview and right away launches into an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, seeming truly apologetic. She is only a couple of minutes behind, she feels compelled to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, during an interview, that’s precisely what one hopes to experience. Additionally, it’s pretty predictable. Viewers who know her unapologetically queer and brash movie titled Bottoms—that Sennott penned with her creative partner and appeared in with collaborator the talented actress—would already know that Sennott possesses much to say, be it on roles, sex, or the merits of forming a teen fight club. Plus, by the end her recent multi-episode HBO series titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries additional perspectives on the challenges of Gen Z life (At 30, she is an honorary member to younger audiences, on the cusp adept for connecting millennials and Gen Z).

Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction

Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and the actress readily acknowledges enthusiastic, citing it alongside Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as influences for I Love LA, which follows the struggles of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and new representative portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the biggest presence on creative vision went to the popular sitcom, that program about an emerging A-list actor succeeding in a corrupt entertainment industry (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She started watching it amid the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and chose 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 I Love LA came—in part—from personal, at first difficult, move to Los Angeles and from her cosmic event, a frequently discussed event for astrology heads. This represented a time that saw her understand some big truths, professionally and individually. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she says. “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, Sennott started creating and acting humor while pursuing theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. 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 took matters into her own hands, performing at open mics with Edebiri and uploading hilarious (and distinctly) unconventional comedy videos digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted a group of women intensely obsessed with motherhood; a different one portrayed being employed at the brand Hollister as akin to being trapped in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually starring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her path, she explains, has been contemporaries supporting her, as opposed to established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, continuing with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”

Manifesting Dreams

Individuals who questioned about Sennott earlier will likely be feeling foolish today. In what she calls a “wild, full-circle” story, she has created the perfect project. Previously she posted a video named “it’s LA” online, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a show about city dwellers juggling the perks of digital stardom (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being suspected of being a intoxicated thief, and possibly becoming a unreliable outcast). It would be simple to produce a series about online fame that was horribly aspirational—or, more problematic, one that mocked at those depicted. I Love LA does neither, creating a portrait of privileged twentysomething existence that’s candid about the chaos and the appeal.

Nuanced Portrayal

“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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