Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and immediately starts an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, seeming truly remorseful. She is only slightly delayed, she needs to justify. “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, in this context, that’s exactly what you want to encounter. Additionally, it’s quite unsurprising. Those who know her fearlessly LGBTQ+ and outspoken movie titled Bottoms—that Sennott penned with Emma Seligman and starred in with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—will understand that she possesses much to say, whether about identity, sex, or the appeal of starting a youth fight club. Plus, after watching her latest eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she carries even more thoughts about the struggles of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott serves as a bridge of the gang, on the cusp adept for straddling different age groups).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott admits to being a fan, naming it together with Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for the project, which details the travails of online personality Tallulah and close companion who is also new representative Sennott’s character. Notably, the most significant influence on concept went to Entourage, that show focusing on an emerging Hollywood star navigating in a corrupt entertainment industry (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it during COVID-19, became “captivated”, and resolved to put her own twist 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 notes. The inspiration for the series came—in part—from firsthand, at first rocky, transition to LA and from her cosmic event, a popular phenomenon for astrology heads. That period marked a time that involved her learn some big insights, work-wise and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “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 …”
Starting Out
Growing up in the East Coast, the star commenced writing and performing humor while enrolled in performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott decided to act independently, appearing at open mics with Ayo and sharing hilarious (and distinctly) bizarre skits online. One, titled Baby Cult, followed a group of women fetishistically fixated on pregnancy; a different one portrayed being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being stuck in a horror film. Interestingly, she connected with Emma through campus film circles and ended up starring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the intense thriller. The central motif of her journey, she says, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, as opposed to traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, stating with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who were skeptical regarding Sennott then will likely be regretting it currently. As part of she labels a “incredibly circular” development, she seems to have achieved her dream vehicle. In 2019 she uploaded a clip called about Los Angeles on social media, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a comedy about LA residents managing benefits of internet fame (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your associate being labeled as being a substance-abusing criminal, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). Some could simple to make a series about online fame that was overly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at its subjects. This show steers clear of each, resulting in a depiction of privileged millennial living that’s frank about the mess and the shine.
Empathetic Approach
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” 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
