Rachel Sennott discussing her side-splitting series depicting the messy appeal of today's youth existence
The performer appears on the online meeting and at once launches into an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, sounding truly remorseful. She is only a bit late, 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!” Thankfully, in this context, this is precisely what you want to hear. Besides, it’s fairly expected. Viewers who have seen the boldly LGBTQ+ and brash movie Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with the director and appeared in together with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—can be aware that Sennott holds a lot to discuss, ranging from on identity, sex, or the merits of creating a youth brawl society. And, once you finish the latest seasonal show I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds additional insights about the darker side of young adulthood (At 30, she represents an honorary member of the gang, straddling eras skilled for bridging both generations).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott admits to being an admirer, naming the show in addition to the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as guides for her series, which details the journey of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and new agent portrayed by Sennott. However, the most significant spot on concept went to the HBO series, that HBO sitcom about an emerging Hollywood star navigating in a corrupt entertainment industry (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott began viewing it during COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and decided to put her own twist on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she says. The concept for I Love LA originated—partly—from personal, initially rocky, relocation to LA and from her saturn return, a popular occurrence for enthusiasts. It was an era that involved her understand some big truths, in her career and individually. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she says. “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
Brought up in the East Coast, the star started 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 explains. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, appearing at amateur nights with her friend and sharing uproarious (and very) weird comedy videos online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, followed a group of women intensely fixated on having babies; another envisioned working at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being stuck in a horror film. By chance, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and ultimately featuring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a funeral gathering with hints of the intense thriller. The central motif of her journey, she explains, has been contemporaries supporting her, as opposed to established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, adding humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Rising Success
Those who questioned about her then will certainly be feeling foolish currently. Through she calls a “wild, full-circle” development, she has achieved her dream vehicle. A few years back she uploaded a video named on LA life online, in which she mocked film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a series about Angelenos managing the perks of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being labeled as being a drug-addled thief, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). Some could tempting to make a program about digital influence that was horribly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that punched down at its subjects. I Love LA does neither, creating a portrait of advantaged young adult living that’s honest about the mess and the glamour.
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 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