Rachel Sennott appears on the online meeting and immediately starts an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, sounding really apologetic. She is only a couple of minutes late, she feels compelled to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Fortunately, for a writer, this is just what is ideal to experience. Besides, it’s pretty expected. Viewers who have seen the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and brash movie titled Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with Emma Seligman and appeared in with her friend the talented actress—can understand that she holds much to say, ranging from on identity, relationships, or the appeal of forming a youth brawl society. Plus, after watching the new multi-episode HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds further perspectives about the challenges of young adulthood (As a millennial, she represents a bridge of the gang, straddling eras with a knack for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott readily acknowledges a fan, citing the show in addition to Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as influences for I Love LA, which details the struggles of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and fledgling representative Maia. Perhaps, the largest spot on creative vision was reserved for the HBO series, that show depicting an emerging A-list actor succeeding in an often-seedy entertainment industry (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She discovered it amid COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and resolved to add a fresh perspective on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she notes. The concept for the series emerged—to some extent—from personal, originally fractious, move to LA and from her astrological phase, a popular phenomenon for followers. This represented a time that included her learn significant insights, in her career and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she admits. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Starting Out
Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott commenced creating and acting stand-up while studying acting at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” 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?”
She took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at amateur nights with Ayo and sharing hysterical (and decidedly) weird comedy videos digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, followed a group of women obsessively drawn to pregnancy; a different one envisioned being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being stuck in a scary movie. Interestingly, she met Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ended up featuring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a religious event with echoes of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her career, she explains, has been peers giving her a shot, instead of traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, continuing humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who questioned about her previously will likely be kicking themselves currently. In what she describes as a “wild, full-circle” story, she seems to have achieved an ideal role. Previously she uploaded a clip titled “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she parodied movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a show about city dwellers juggling benefits of digital stardom (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your friend being labeled as being a substance-abusing criminal, and possibly becoming a unreliable outcast). Some could simple to produce a series about online fame that was extremely idealized—or, more problematic, one that belittled at the characters. The series does neither, resulting in a portrait of privileged twentysomething existence that’s honest about the mess and the appeal.
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 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
