Rachel Sennott on the side-splitting show about the grotty appeal of Gen Z existence
The performer joins the online meeting and immediately begins an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, seeming truly apologetic. Although she's only a bit delayed, she wants to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, in this context, this is precisely what is ideal to encounter. Besides, it’s quite unsurprising. Those who know the boldly queer and brash film Bottoms—which she penned with her creative partner and starred in with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—will understand that Sennott holds a lot to say, ranging from on identity, intimacy, or the appeal of creating a high-school fight club. Furthermore, after watching the new seasonal program titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star has additional insights regarding the challenges of Gen Z life (At 30, she is an honorary member of the gang, straddling eras with a knack for bridging both generations).
Influences and Creative Vision
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and Sennott readily acknowledges a fan, referencing the show in addition to Sex and the City, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as guides for her series, which follows the struggles of online personality Tallulah and her friend and fledgling agent Maia. However, the biggest influence on concept belonged to the HBO series, that program depicting an up-and-coming Hollywood star navigating in an often-seedy LA scene (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She discovered it throughout lockdown, became “obsessed”, and decided 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 explains. The inspiration for I Love LA emerged—to some extent—from her own, originally difficult, move to Los Angeles and from the saturn return, a much-talked-about phenomenon for astrology heads. This represented a phase that included her understand some big truths, 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
Raised in Connecticut, Sennott began creating and acting comedy while enrolled in acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “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.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott seized control, performing at open mics with Ayo and sharing hilarious (and very) bizarre comedy videos digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women fetishistically fixated on motherhood; a different one imagined being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being trapped in a thriller. By chance, she connected with Seligman through campus film circles and ultimately appearing in her first film, Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a religious event with echoes of the intense thriller. The big theme of her journey, she says, has been contemporaries supporting her, instead of traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, stating humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Those who questioned regarding Sennott previously will surely be feeling foolish today. In what she calls a “wild, full-circle” story, she has manifested her dream vehicle. A few years back she posted a video called about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she lampooned movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a show about city dwellers juggling advantages of internet fame (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your friend being accused of being a substance-abusing thief, and possibly becoming a risky outcast). It would be tempting to create a program about online fame that was extremely aspirational—or, more problematic, one that mocked at the characters. The series steers clear of each, creating a representation of affluent young adult life that’s frank about the mess and the appeal.
Nuanced Portrayal
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” she says. “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
