Rachel Sennott joins the video call and immediately starts an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, appearing genuinely regretful. She is only a couple of minutes delayed, she needs to explain. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, for a writer, that’s precisely what you want to experience. Additionally, it’s pretty unsurprising. Those familiar with her fearlessly openly gay and unapologetically crass movie Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with Emma Seligman and featured in alongside her friend The Bear’s standout—can understand that Sennott possesses a lot to discuss, ranging from about identity, relationships, or the appeal of forming a teen fight club. Plus, once you finish her new multi-episode show titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she has further perspectives regarding the darker side of Gen Z life (As a millennial, Sennott represents a relatable figure for this generation, a tale-end millennial with a knack for connecting both generations).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott readily acknowledges enthusiastic, citing it together with Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as guides for the project, which tracks the struggles of an influencer Tallulah and close companion and new agent portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the most significant influence on concept went to Entourage, the HBO sitcom focusing on an up-and-coming Hollywood star navigating in an often-seedy Hollywood (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it throughout the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and decided to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she says. The inspiration for the series originated—to some extent—from her own, at first rocky, transition to LA and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about phenomenon for enthusiasts. It was an era that saw her grasp significant truths, in her career and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “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
Brought up in New England, Sennott began developing and showcasing humor while studying theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at live shows with Edebiri and sharing hysterical (and very) unconventional online content on the internet. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted characters obsessively obsessed with having babies; another envisioned being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being stuck in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually featuring in her first film, Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a religious event with shades of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her career, she notes, has been people her own age offering opportunities, instead of traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she repeats, stating with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Anyone who had doubts regarding her then will surely be regretting it today. As part of she calls a “astonishingly complete” story, she appears to achieved her dream vehicle. A few years back she shared a video called about Los Angeles online, in which she mocked film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a show about LA residents managing the perks of online celebrity (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your client being suspected of being a drug-addled criminal, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). It would be simple to produce a program about digital influence that was overly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at the characters. The series does neither, resulting in a representation of affluent millennial life that’s honest about the mess and the shine.
Balanced Perspective
“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
