Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and at once launches into an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, appearing truly regretful. She is only a couple of minutes behind, she wants to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, in this context, that’s precisely what is ideal to experience. Moreover, it’s pretty predictable. Viewers who know her boldly LGBTQ+ and outspoken project titled Bottoms—that she penned with the director and featured in alongside collaborator the talented actress—will be aware that she has a lot to share, ranging from on identity, relationships, or the merits of starting a teen fight club. And, after watching her new multi-episode HBO series I Love LA, viewers realize that the star holds even more perspectives regarding the darker side of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, she is an honorary member of the gang, straddling eras with a knack for connecting different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress admits to being an admirer, citing the show alongside Sex and the City, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as guides for the project, which details the travails of online personality Tallulah and her friend and fledgling representative portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the most significant influence on creative vision went to Entourage, that show about an emerging celebrity navigating in an often-seedy entertainment industry (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She began viewing it throughout lockdown, became “captivated”, and resolved to create a new version on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she notes. The idea for this project emerged—in part—from personal, originally fractious, transition to Tinseltown and from her astrological phase, a frequently discussed event for enthusiasts. It was an era that saw her grasp significant life lessons, professionally and individually. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she says. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in the East Coast, Sennott began writing and performing stand-up while pursuing theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she explains. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott seized control, taking the stage at amateur nights with Ayo and uploading uproarious (and decidedly) bizarre skits digitally. One, Baby Cult, followed characters fetishistically drawn to motherhood; a different one envisioned being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being trapped in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Emma through campus film circles and ended up appearing in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a Jewish wake with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her career, she notes, has been people her own age supporting her, rather than the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, continuing humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Individuals who questioned about her previously will surely be regretting it now. Through she describes as a “incredibly circular” development, she appears to created the perfect project. In 2019 she posted a clip called “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she parodied movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a show about Angelenos juggling benefits of internet fame (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being labeled as being a drug-addled criminal, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). One might simple to produce a show about online fame that was overly idealized—or, worse, one that punched down at the characters. The series avoids both, resulting in a portrait of affluent young adult living that’s frank about the chaos and the glamour.
Balanced Perspective
“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
