Rachel Sennott joins the digital interview and immediately launches into an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, seeming really remorseful. Despite being only a couple of minutes delayed, she needs 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 just what you want to hear. Additionally, it’s pretty unsurprising. Anyone familiar with her fearlessly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass movie titled Bottoms—which she co-wrote with her creative partner and starred in with collaborator The Bear’s standout—can already know that Sennott holds a lot to discuss, whether about gender, relationships, or the appeal of starting a high-school brawl society. Furthermore, by the end the new eight-part show titled I Love LA, viewers realize that the star holds even more thoughts on the challenges of modern youth (As a millennial, she is an honorary member for this generation, on the cusp with a knack for straddling both generations).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and Sennott readily acknowledges enthusiastic, referencing the show alongside Sex and the City, Insecure and Atlanta as guides for the project, which details the struggles of an influencer Tallulah and ally who is also aspiring representative Maia. However, the most significant presence on the moodboard was reserved for the popular sitcom, the show depicting an emerging celebrity succeeding in an often-seedy Hollywood (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it amid the pandemic, became “captivated”, and resolved to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she explains. The idea for the series originated—in part—from firsthand, originally fractious, relocation to LA and from the saturn return, a much-talked-about event for enthusiasts. That period marked a phase that saw her understand major truths, professionally and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Humble Origins
Raised in New England, the star began writing and performing humor while studying performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “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.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She decided to act independently, performing at open mics with Ayo and sharing hysterical (and decidedly) weird skits online. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed a group of women obsessively drawn to pregnancy; another imagined working at the brand Hollister as similar to being trapped in a scary movie. By chance, she encountered Emma through campus film circles and ultimately starring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her path, she explains, has been contemporaries supporting her, instead of established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, stating amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Rising Success
Those who questioned regarding her previously will certainly be kicking themselves now. Through she describes as a “incredibly circular” story, she has manifested an ideal role. A few years back she uploaded content called about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she parodied film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a series about Angelenos juggling benefits of internet fame (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being labeled as being a drug-addled thief, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). Some could tempting to make a show about internet celebrity that was horribly idealized—or, worse, one that mocked at its subjects. The series avoids both, making for a representation of advantaged twentysomething living that’s candid about the mess and the shine.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” she says. “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
