Rachel Sennott on her side-splitting series depicting the messy allure of today's youth existence
The performer joins the online meeting and at once starts an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, sounding really remorseful. Despite being only a couple of minutes behind, she wants to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, during an interview, this is exactly what is ideal to experience. Besides, it’s quite predictable. Those who know the boldly queer and brash movie titled Bottoms—which Sennott collaborated on with the director and appeared in together with her friend The Bear’s standout—will be aware that Sennott possesses a lot to share, whether about identity, relationships, or the pros of creating a teen fight club. And, by the end her new multi-episode HBO series I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star holds even more insights about the challenges of modern youth (At 30, she represents a relatable figure of the gang, on the cusp adept for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Artistic Direction
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott admits to being an admirer, referencing it together with the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as influences for her series, which follows the struggles of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and new agent Sennott’s character. However, the most significant influence on creative vision belonged to Entourage, the HBO sitcom depicting an up-and-coming celebrity navigating in an often-seedy entertainment industry (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott discovered it amid COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and chose to create a new version 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 idea for I Love LA emerged—partly—from personal, originally fractious, transition to LA and from her saturn return, a popular event for followers. That period marked a phase that involved her understand significant insights, in her career and personally. “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. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Humble Origins
Growing up in the East Coast, Sennott began writing and performing comedy while studying acting at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott decided to act independently, taking the stage at live shows with Edebiri and sharing uproarious (and very) weird online content online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted characters obsessively obsessed with motherhood; another envisioned working at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being stuck in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Emma through the university’s film scene and ended up appearing in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her journey, she notes, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, instead of traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, continuing humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who were skeptical about her earlier will certainly be feeling foolish now. Through she calls a “astonishingly complete” story, she has manifested her dream vehicle. A few years back she uploaded a clip named about Los Angeles online, in which she mocked movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a series about city dwellers balancing advantages of online celebrity (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your client being suspected of being a intoxicated thief, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). One might tempting to create a series about online fame that was overly idealized—or, worse, one that belittled at the characters. I Love LA avoids both, creating a representation of affluent millennial life that’s candid about the grot and the glamour.
Balanced Perspective
“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