Rachel Sennott joins the online meeting and immediately begins an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, appearing really apologetic. Despite being only slightly late, she feels compelled to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, in this context, this is just what one hopes to hear. Moreover, it’s quite predictable. Anyone who have seen her fearlessly queer and unapologetically crass movie Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with the director and starred in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—will understand that Sennott holds plenty to say, ranging from on roles, intimacy, or the merits of creating a youth fight club. And, by the end her new seasonal HBO series titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star has even more thoughts on the struggles of young adulthood (As a millennial, Sennott is an honorary member of the gang, straddling eras with a knack for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Creative Vision
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and the actress is a fan, citing it alongside the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as guides for I Love LA, which details the struggles of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion and new representative Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the most significant influence on the moodboard went to Entourage, that program focusing on a rising Hollywood star navigating in an often-seedy Hollywood (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She discovered it throughout the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and decided to add a fresh perspective on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she says. The idea for this project emerged—partly—from her own, originally difficult, transition to Tinseltown and from her saturn return, a much-talked-about phenomenon for astrology heads. That period marked an era that involved her learn significant insights, work-wise and individually. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Starting Out
Raised in the East Coast, the star started creating and acting humor while pursuing acting at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” 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, performing at amateur nights with her friend and uploading hysterical (and very) bizarre skits online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, followed several females obsessively drawn to having babies; a different one envisioned working at the brand Hollister as like being trapped in a thriller. Interestingly, she connected with Emma through campus film circles and ultimately appearing in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a Jewish wake with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her path, she says, has been contemporaries supporting her, instead of the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, stating amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Those who were skeptical regarding Sennott previously will surely be regretting it currently. In what she describes as a “incredibly circular” development, she seems to have created her dream vehicle. A few years back she uploaded content named on LA life on the internet, in which she parodied movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a series about city dwellers balancing benefits of digital stardom (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your client being labeled as being a substance-abusing criminal, and perhaps becoming a risky persona non grata). Some could easy to produce a show about digital influence that was overly idealized—or, more problematic, one that mocked at those depicted. I Love LA steers clear of each, resulting in a representation of affluent twentysomething living that’s frank about the chaos and the glamour.
Empathetic Approach
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
