Rachel Sennott appears on the video call and at once begins an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, seeming truly apologetic. Despite being only a couple of minutes behind, she needs 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!” Thankfully, for a writer, this is precisely what you want to experience. Moreover, it’s fairly predictable. Those familiar with her unapologetically queer and outspoken film Bottoms—which she penned with Emma Seligman and appeared in together with close companion the talented actress—can understand that Sennott has plenty to say, ranging from about gender, relationships, or the appeal of creating a high-school combat group. Plus, once you finish her latest seasonal show titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she has further insights on the darker side of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, she serves as an honorary member to younger audiences, on the cusp adept for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, naming it alongside Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as influences for I Love LA, which follows the journey of online personality Tallulah and her friend and fledgling agent portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the largest spot on concept went to the popular sitcom, the program focusing on a rising celebrity navigating in a gritty entertainment industry (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott began viewing it during the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and decided to put her own twist on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she explains. The idea for this project came—to some extent—from her own, initially rocky, transition to Los Angeles and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about occurrence for astrology heads. It was a phase that involved her grasp major truths, work-wise and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in the East Coast, Sennott started creating and acting humor while enrolled in performance at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott seized control, appearing at open mics with her friend and sharing hysterical (and decidedly) weird online content digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted several females fetishistically obsessed with pregnancy; another imagined being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being stuck in a horror film. By chance, she met Seligman through the university’s film scene and ultimately featuring in her first film, Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a funeral gathering with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her path, she says, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, instead of the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she repeats, continuing amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Anyone who were skeptical regarding Sennott previously will surely be kicking themselves currently. Through she labels a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she appears to manifested her dream vehicle. Previously she posted a clip titled on LA life online, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a show about Angelenos juggling advantages of online celebrity (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your friend being suspected of being a drug-addled stealer, and potentially becoming a risky pariah). Some could easy to make a series about online fame that was extremely glamorous—or, worse, one that mocked at those depicted. This show avoids both, resulting in a portrait of advantaged twentysomething living that’s frank about the grot and the shine.
Balanced Perspective
“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
