Rachel Sennott enters the video call and at once starts an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, seeming really regretful. Despite being only a couple of minutes behind, she wants to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, for a writer, this is just what one hopes to experience. Additionally, it’s fairly unsurprising. Viewers familiar with her boldly queer and brash film Bottoms—that she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and appeared in alongside close companion The Bear’s standout—can already know that she holds much to say, whether on roles, intimacy, or the merits of forming a teen combat group. Furthermore, once you finish the new multi-episode show titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she has even more thoughts about the challenges of modern youth (Now in her thirties, Sennott serves as a bridge to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial with a knack for straddling different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and the actress admits to being an admirer, citing the show in addition to Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as influences for her series, which follows the journey of online personality Tallulah and ally and fledgling agent portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the biggest influence on the moodboard went to the HBO series, that HBO sitcom depicting a rising A-list actor making his way in an often-seedy LA scene (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott started watching it during the pandemic, became “hooked”, and resolved to put her own twist on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she says. The concept for this project came—partly—from her own, initially difficult, transition to Tinseltown and from her saturn return, a much-talked-about occurrence for followers. This represented a phase that saw her learn significant truths, professionally and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “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 …”
Starting Out
Brought up in Connecticut, the star commenced developing and showcasing humor while studying theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “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 took matters into her own hands, appearing at amateur nights with Ayo and sharing hilarious (and distinctly) weird skits digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, followed a group of women fetishistically fixated on motherhood; another envisioned working at a trendy retail outlet as like being caught in a scary movie. By chance, she met Emma through campus film circles and ended up starring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a religious event with hints of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her journey, she says, has been peers supporting her, instead of the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, continuing humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who were skeptical regarding Sennott then will certainly be kicking themselves now. As part of she describes as a “incredibly circular” story, she appears to achieved an ideal role. Previously she shared content titled on LA life on social media, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a series about Angelenos managing advantages of internet fame (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your associate being accused of being a drug-addled stealer, and perhaps becoming a risky pariah). It would be tempting to produce a show about online fame that was extremely glamorous—or, more problematic, one that mocked at its subjects. I Love LA steers clear of each, making for a representation of affluent twentysomething living that’s candid about the mess and the glamour.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
