Rachel Sennott joins the video call and right away launches into an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, sounding truly apologetic. Although she's only a couple of minutes late, she needs to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, in this context, that’s just what you want to experience. Moreover, it’s pretty predictable. Viewers who have seen the fearlessly queer and unapologetically crass film Bottoms—which she penned with her creative partner and appeared in alongside close companion The Bear’s standout—can already know that Sennott has a lot to say, be it about gender, sex, or the appeal of forming a teen fight club. And, once you finish the latest eight-part program I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star carries even more perspectives on the challenges of Gen Z life (At 30, she serves as an honorary member for this generation, on the cusp with a knack for bridging different age groups).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and Sennott admits to being an admirer, naming it in addition to the HBO hit, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for her series, which follows the journey of online personality Tallulah and ally and fledgling talent manager Sennott’s character. However, the largest influence on concept was reserved for the HBO series, that show depicting an up-and-coming Hollywood star succeeding in a corrupt Hollywood (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She began viewing it amid lockdown, became “obsessed”, and decided to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“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, initially difficult, relocation to Los Angeles and from the saturn return, a frequently discussed phenomenon for astrology heads. It was a time that included her learn significant life lessons, work-wise and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “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
Growing up in New England, the star commenced writing and performing humor while enrolled in theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She took matters into her own hands, performing at live shows with her friend and uploading hilarious (and distinctly) weird online content digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women intensely obsessed with motherhood; another envisioned working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being stuck in a scary movie. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually appearing in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a funeral gathering with hints of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her career, she explains, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, instead of established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she confirms, continuing with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who were skeptical about Sennott earlier will likely be feeling foolish today. As part of she calls a “incredibly circular” development, she seems to have achieved an ideal role. A few years back she uploaded content named about Los Angeles on social media, in which she parodied film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a show about Angelenos juggling the perks of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being labeled as being a intoxicated criminal, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). One might tempting to create a program about online fame that was extremely glamorous—or, more problematic, one that punched down at those depicted. The series steers clear of each, creating a representation of affluent millennial existence that’s frank about the chaos 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 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
