Rachel Sennott joins the digital interview and immediately starts an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, seeming genuinely regretful. Despite being only slightly behind, she needs to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, during an interview, this is just what is ideal to hear. Moreover, it’s pretty unsurprising. Those who know the boldly openly gay and brash film Bottoms—that she co-wrote with Emma Seligman and appeared in alongside close companion Ayo Edebiri—can be aware that she holds a lot to share, be it on gender, sex, or the merits of creating a youth combat group. Furthermore, by the end the recent eight-part show titled I Love LA, viewers realize that the star holds additional thoughts regarding the struggles of Gen Z life (At 30, she is an honorary member to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial skilled for straddling both generations).
Influences and Artistic Direction
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott readily acknowledges a fan, citing it in addition to the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as guides for the project, which follows the journey of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also new agent Maia. Notably, the most significant presence on the moodboard belonged to the HBO series, that program about a rising Hollywood star navigating in an often-seedy LA scene (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott started watching it amid lockdown, became “obsessed”, and resolved to add a fresh perspective 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 says. The concept for the series emerged—in part—from personal, at first fractious, move to Tinseltown and from her astrological phase, a frequently discussed occurrence for enthusiasts. This represented a time that saw her grasp major life lessons, in her career and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in the East Coast, the star started creating and acting stand-up while studying performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott decided to act independently, appearing at open mics with Edebiri and sharing uproarious (and decidedly) bizarre skits online. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on a group of women intensely drawn to motherhood; another portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being caught in a thriller. Interestingly, she met Seligman through the university’s film scene and ended up starring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the intense thriller. The central motif of her journey, she explains, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, as opposed to established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, stating amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Those who were skeptical about her earlier will surely be regretting it now. As part of she describes as a “wild, full-circle” story, she appears to manifested the perfect project. Previously she uploaded a video called about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she parodied film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a show about LA residents juggling advantages of digital stardom (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your client being suspected of being a drug-addled criminal, and potentially becoming a risky outcast). Some could simple to create a show about internet celebrity that was horribly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at its subjects. This show avoids both, making for a portrait of affluent millennial existence that’s honest about the mess and the shine.
Empathetic Approach
“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
