Rachel Sennott enters the video call and right away launches into an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, seeming really remorseful. Although she's only a bit late, she wants to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, in this context, that’s just what one hopes to encounter. Besides, it’s quite expected. Anyone who have seen her fearlessly openly gay and outspoken movie titled Bottoms—which she penned with Emma Seligman and featured in alongside close companion Ayo Edebiri—would already know that she has plenty to share, whether on gender, relationships, or the pros of forming a teen fight club. And, after watching her new eight-part HBO series I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star holds further insights on the darker side of Gen Z life (At 30, she is a bridge of the gang, straddling eras skilled for bridging different age groups).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott is an admirer, naming it in addition to the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as guides for the project, which tracks the struggles of an influencer Tallulah and ally who is also aspiring talent manager Sennott’s character. However, the biggest influence on creative vision went to Entourage, that program about a rising A-list actor succeeding in a corrupt LA scene (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it during lockdown, became “obsessed”, and decided to put her own twist on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The concept for I Love LA emerged—partly—from personal, at first difficult, transition to LA and from the astrological phase, a much-talked-about phenomenon for followers. This represented a phase that saw her grasp significant life lessons, work-wise and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Starting Out
Raised in New England, the star commenced writing and performing stand-up while studying acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “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.”
Sennott decided to act independently, performing at amateur nights with Ayo and uploading hysterical (and very) weird online content digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted several females fetishistically obsessed with pregnancy; a different one envisioned working at the brand Hollister as like being trapped in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she met Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ended up featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her journey, she notes, has been people her own age supporting her, as opposed to traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, adding humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who had doubts about her earlier will surely be feeling foolish currently. As part of she calls a “incredibly circular” story, she seems to have achieved an ideal role. In 2019 she uploaded a clip called “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she parodied film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a show about Angelenos balancing the perks of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your friend being accused of being a drug-addled criminal, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). One might tempting to make a program about online fame that was horribly aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at those depicted. I Love LA does neither, resulting in a portrait of advantaged millennial existence that’s honest about the mess and the glamour.
Empathetic Approach
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
