The comedic talent on her side-splitting series depicting that messy allure of younger generation existence
Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and immediately begins an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, appearing truly regretful. She is only slightly delayed, she wants to clarify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, in this context, this is precisely what one hopes to hear. Additionally, it’s fairly expected. Viewers familiar with the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—which she penned with Emma Seligman and appeared in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—would already know that she holds much to say, ranging from about identity, intimacy, or the pros of starting a teen fight club. Plus, by the end the latest eight-part program titled I Love LA, it is clear that she holds additional perspectives regarding the darker side of young adulthood (At 30, she represents an honorary member of the gang, on the cusp skilled for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and the actress is enthusiastic, naming the show in addition to Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as guides for the project, which tracks the journey of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and aspiring talent manager Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the largest spot on creative vision went to Entourage, the show depicting an up-and-coming Hollywood star making his way in an often-seedy Hollywood (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She discovered it throughout lockdown, became “hooked”, and resolved to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The inspiration for I Love LA came—partly—from personal, at first difficult, relocation to LA and from her saturn return, a much-talked-about phenomenon for followers. This represented an era that included her learn significant insights, in her career and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Early Beginnings
Raised in New England, the star started writing and performing stand-up while pursuing performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at open mics with Edebiri and posting hilarious (and decidedly) bizarre skits on the internet. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted characters fetishistically fixated on having babies; a different one envisioned working at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being caught in a horror film. Interestingly, she connected with Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ultimately featuring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her journey, she explains, has been peers offering opportunities, rather than established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, adding humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who were skeptical regarding her previously will certainly be feeling foolish today. In what she describes as a “astonishingly complete” story, she seems to have manifested her dream vehicle. Previously she uploaded a video called on LA life on the internet, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about LA residents managing benefits of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being suspected of being a intoxicated stealer, and perhaps becoming a risky outcast). One might tempting to make a show about internet celebrity that was extremely aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at its subjects. The series does neither, making for a depiction of affluent millennial life that’s honest about the mess and the shine.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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