Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and at once begins an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, appearing genuinely regretful. Despite being only a couple of minutes behind, she wants to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s just what you want to hear. Besides, it’s quite predictable. Those who have seen the fearlessly openly gay and unapologetically crass project titled Bottoms—that Sennott penned with her creative partner and starred in together with collaborator The Bear’s standout—can already know that she possesses much to share, ranging from on identity, relationships, or the merits of starting a high-school fight club. Furthermore, once you finish her recent eight-part show I Love LA, it is clear that she holds further insights regarding the struggles of modern youth (Now in her thirties, she represents a bridge of the gang, on the cusp with a knack for connecting both generations).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and the actress admits to being an admirer, referencing the show together with the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as inspirations for I Love LA, which details the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also fledgling talent manager Sennott’s character. However, the largest presence on creative vision belonged to Entourage, the HBO sitcom depicting an emerging A-list actor making his way in a gritty LA scene (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott discovered it amid the pandemic, became “hooked”, and resolved to add a fresh perspective on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The inspiration for the series originated—partly—from firsthand, originally rocky, transition to Tinseltown and from her cosmic event, a much-talked-about occurrence for enthusiasts. That period marked a time that saw her learn significant insights, professionally 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 resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Humble Origins
Brought up in New England, Sennott commenced creating and acting humor while studying acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, performing at live shows with Edebiri and sharing hilarious (and decidedly) unconventional skits online. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed several females intensely fixated on motherhood; another portrayed working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being caught in a horror film. By chance, she connected with Emma through the university’s film scene and ended up starring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her career, she says, has been people her own age supporting her, as opposed to the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, stating with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Manifesting Dreams
Individuals who were skeptical about Sennott previously will surely be feeling foolish now. In what she calls a “astonishingly complete” development, she seems to have manifested an ideal role. In 2019 she shared content titled “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a series about LA residents managing benefits of digital stardom (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your friend being suspected of being a intoxicated thief, and potentially becoming a risky persona non grata). Some could easy to create a program about digital influence that was overly aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at those depicted. The series does neither, creating a portrait of affluent young adult existence that’s frank about the mess and the shine.
Balanced Perspective
“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
