Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and immediately starts an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, sounding really remorseful. Despite being only a couple of minutes late, she wants to justify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, in this context, that’s just what one hopes to encounter. Moreover, it’s pretty predictable. Anyone who know her unapologetically LGBTQ+ and outspoken movie titled Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and starred in alongside collaborator the talented actress—would already know that Sennott possesses much to share, be it about gender, relationships, or the pros of creating a youth combat group. And, once you finish her recent eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she holds further perspectives on the darker side of Gen Z life (As a millennial, she serves as a relatable figure of the gang, straddling eras with a knack for straddling different age groups).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
Parallels to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress readily acknowledges a fan, referencing it in addition to the HBO hit, Insecure and Atlanta as influences for I Love LA, which follows the journey of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and fledgling agent Maia. However, the largest presence on the moodboard was reserved for the popular sitcom, the show focusing on an up-and-coming A-list actor making his way in a corrupt entertainment industry (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She began viewing it throughout lockdown, became “hooked”, and decided to put her own twist on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she explains. The inspiration for this project came—to some extent—from personal, originally fractious, move to Los Angeles and from her astrological phase, a popular occurrence for followers. That period marked a time that included her learn significant insights, in her career and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Humble Origins
Brought up in Connecticut, the star began developing and showcasing humor while pursuing acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott decided to act independently, appearing at amateur nights with Ayo and uploading uproarious (and very) unconventional online content digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted characters obsessively drawn to having babies; a different one imagined working at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being caught in a thriller. By chance, she met Seligman through the university’s film scene and ended up starring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her journey, she notes, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, instead of the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, stating with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who had doubts regarding Sennott then will likely be regretting it today. In what she calls a “incredibly circular” story, she appears to created an ideal role. In 2019 she shared content titled “it’s LA” on social media, in which she lampooned film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a show about LA residents managing benefits of internet fame (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your client being suspected of being a drug-addled criminal, and potentially becoming a unreliable persona non grata). One might tempting to make a show about digital influence that was horribly aspirational—or, more problematic, one that belittled at those depicted. I Love LA does neither, resulting in a portrait of advantaged twentysomething existence that’s honest 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
