Rachel Sennott appears on the digital interview and right away begins an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, sounding really remorseful. She is only slightly late, she wants to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, during an interview, this is exactly what one hopes to hear. Besides, it’s quite expected. Those who have seen the fearlessly queer and outspoken project Bottoms—which Sennott penned with Emma Seligman and starred in alongside her friend the talented actress—can be aware that Sennott possesses plenty to share, ranging from on roles, intimacy, or the appeal of starting a high-school combat group. Plus, after watching her latest seasonal show titled I Love LA, it is clear that she carries further thoughts about the struggles of modern youth (As a millennial, she is an honorary member for this generation, on the cusp with a knack for connecting different age groups).
Influences and Creative Vision
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott admits to being an admirer, citing the show alongside the HBO hit, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as influences for her series, which follows the journey of online personality Tallulah and close companion and new agent Sennott’s character. However, the biggest influence on the moodboard went to the popular sitcom, that show focusing on a rising A-list actor navigating in a gritty LA scene (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott started watching it throughout lockdown, became “captivated”, and decided to create a new version 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 concept for this project came—in part—from her own, at first fractious, transition to Los Angeles and from the cosmic event, a much-talked-about event for astrology heads. That period marked an era that involved her learn some big life lessons, professionally and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Starting Out
Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott started writing and performing humor while enrolled in performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
She took matters into her own hands, performing at amateur nights with her friend and sharing hilarious (and very) unconventional online content online. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on a group of women fetishistically obsessed with pregnancy; a different one imagined being employed at the brand Hollister as akin to being stuck in a thriller. By chance, she met Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ended up starring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a Jewish wake with echoes of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her path, she notes, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, instead of traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, stating humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Anyone who had doubts regarding Sennott previously will surely be regretting it now. Through she calls a “astonishingly complete” development, she appears to manifested an ideal role. In 2019 she uploaded a video called on LA life online, in which she parodied film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a comedy about city dwellers managing benefits of online celebrity (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your associate being accused of being a drug-addled thief, and potentially becoming a unreliable persona non grata). Some could simple to make a series about internet celebrity that was overly glamorous—or, worse, one that punched down at the characters. This show does neither, creating a depiction of advantaged twentysomething life that’s candid about the chaos and the appeal.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
