🔗 Share this article

Rachel Sennott appears on the digital interview and right away launches into an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, seeming truly regretful. Despite being only a couple of minutes late, she needs to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, for a writer, this is just what is ideal to encounter. Additionally, it’s fairly unsurprising. Anyone familiar with the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and brash film titled Bottoms—which she penned with the director and featured in alongside close companion the talented actress—would already know that she holds plenty to discuss, be it about roles, relationships, or the merits of starting a high-school fight club. Plus, after watching the recent eight-part show I Love LA, it is clear that she carries additional thoughts about the challenges of Gen Z life (At 30, she serves as an honorary member for this generation, on the cusp with a knack for straddling both generations).

Influences and Storytelling Approach

Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and the actress admits to being an admirer, citing the show in addition to the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as inspirations for her series, which tracks the travails of a social media star Tallulah and ally who is also aspiring representative Maia. However, the biggest influence on creative vision went to Entourage, the program focusing on an emerging A-list actor making his way in a gritty LA scene (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott began viewing it throughout COVID-19, became “captivated”, and chose to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.

“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she explains. The idea for I Love LA came—to some extent—from her own, at first difficult, transition to Tinseltown and from the saturn return, a frequently discussed event for followers. It was a time that included her learn significant insights, professionally and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”

Humble Origins

Brought up in Connecticut, the star started creating and acting humor while enrolled in acting at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”

She seized control, performing at amateur nights with Edebiri and sharing hysterical (and decidedly) bizarre comedy videos on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted a group of women intensely obsessed with having babies; a different one portrayed being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being trapped in a horror film. Interestingly, she met Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ended up appearing in her first film, Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of the intense thriller. The big theme of her journey, she explains, has been people her own age offering opportunities, rather than traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she confirms, stating humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”

Manifesting Dreams

Those who questioned regarding Sennott earlier will surely be regretting it now. In what she describes as a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she has achieved the perfect project. Previously she shared a video called about Los Angeles on social media, in which she parodied movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a comedy about LA residents balancing benefits of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your friend being labeled as being a intoxicated thief, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). It would be tempting to make a show about internet celebrity that was horribly aspirational—or, worse, one that punched down at its subjects. This show avoids both, making for a depiction of privileged young adult existence that’s honest about the mess and the glamour.

Nuanced Portrayal

“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” 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