Rachel Sennott appears on the online meeting and right away starts an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, appearing truly regretful. She is only slightly late, she feels compelled to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, for a writer, this is exactly what you want to encounter. Moreover, it’s fairly predictable. Those who have seen the boldly LGBTQ+ and brash project Bottoms—which she penned with her creative partner and starred in with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—can understand that she possesses plenty to say, whether about roles, sex, or the appeal of starting a teen brawl society. And, after watching her recent eight-part show I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star carries further perspectives about the challenges of Gen Z life (As a millennial, she is a bridge for this generation, straddling eras adept for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Creative Vision
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and Sennott is an admirer, referencing the show together with the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as influences for I Love LA, which tracks the travails of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also new agent portrayed by Sennott. However, the largest spot on the moodboard was reserved for Entourage, the HBO sitcom focusing on a rising celebrity succeeding in a gritty Hollywood (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She began viewing it during COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and resolved to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she explains. The idea for this project came—to some extent—from firsthand, originally fractious, move to Tinseltown and from her cosmic event, a much-talked-about event for enthusiasts. This represented an era that included her understand major truths, in her career and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she admits. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Humble Origins
Brought up in New England, Sennott commenced writing and performing stand-up while pursuing theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott decided to act independently, appearing at live shows with Edebiri and sharing hilarious (and very) unconventional skits digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, followed characters intensely obsessed with having babies; another portrayed working at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being trapped in a horror film. Interestingly, she encountered Seligman through the university’s film scene and eventually featuring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a funeral gathering with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her journey, she notes, has been people her own age supporting her, rather than established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, continuing humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who questioned regarding her then will likely be regretting it today. Through she describes as a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she has created her dream vehicle. Previously she shared a clip named on LA life on the internet, in which she mocked film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a show about city dwellers balancing benefits of digital stardom (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being labeled as being a intoxicated criminal, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). One might simple to make a program about internet celebrity that was horribly idealized—or, worse, one that belittled at its subjects. The series does neither, resulting in a depiction of affluent millennial life that’s candid about the mess and the shine.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
