Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and immediately starts an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, appearing truly remorseful. She is only a bit late, she wants to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, for a writer, this is just what you want to hear. Additionally, it’s fairly predictable. Anyone familiar with her unapologetically openly gay and brash film titled Bottoms—that she penned with the director and featured in with her friend The Bear’s standout—would be aware that she holds a lot to say, ranging from about roles, intimacy, or the appeal of creating a teen combat group. Furthermore, by the end the latest seasonal program I Love LA, it is clear that she carries even more perspectives about the struggles of Gen Z life (As a millennial, Sennott is a bridge of the gang, straddling eras adept for straddling both generations).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, referencing the show alongside the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as guides for I Love LA, which details the struggles of an influencer Tallulah and ally and new representative portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the largest spot on the moodboard went to Entourage, the HBO sitcom about a rising Hollywood star navigating in a corrupt LA scene (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She began viewing it amid the pandemic, became “hooked”, and decided 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 the series emerged—in part—from firsthand, originally rocky, move to LA and from her saturn return, a popular occurrence for enthusiasts. That period marked a time that saw her grasp significant insights, work-wise and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Humble Origins
Growing up in the East Coast, the star started writing and performing stand-up while enrolled in theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott decided to act independently, appearing at open mics with Edebiri and sharing hilarious (and decidedly) unconventional online content on the internet. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed a group of women obsessively obsessed with motherhood; a different one portrayed working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being stuck in a scary movie. By chance, she connected with Emma through campus film circles and ended up appearing in her first film, Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a religious event with shades of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her path, she explains, has been peers offering opportunities, rather than the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, stating amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Rising Success
Those who were skeptical regarding her previously will certainly be feeling foolish today. In what she labels a “incredibly circular” story, she seems to have achieved her dream vehicle. Previously she shared a clip named about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she mocked film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a series about LA residents juggling advantages of internet fame (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your client being accused of being a intoxicated stealer, and possibly becoming a unreliable pariah). It would be easy to produce a show about internet celebrity that was extremely idealized—or, more problematic, one that punched down at the characters. The series does neither, creating a portrait of affluent millennial life that’s frank about the mess and the shine.
Empathetic Approach
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” 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
