🔗 Share this article

Rachel Sennott enters the digital interview and right away launches into an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, appearing really remorseful. Despite being only slightly late, she feels compelled to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, during an interview, this is just what you want to hear. Besides, it’s pretty unsurprising. Those who have seen her boldly openly gay and unapologetically crass project Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with Emma Seligman and starred in together with her friend the talented actress—can be aware that she has a lot to discuss, be it about roles, relationships, or the appeal of creating a high-school brawl society. And, after watching the recent eight-part show titled I Love LA, viewers realize that the star has even more thoughts about the darker side of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott is a bridge of the gang, on the cusp adept for bridging both generations).

Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction

The comparisons to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and Sennott is an admirer, citing the show in addition to the HBO hit, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as influences for the project, which follows the struggles of online personality Tallulah and ally who is also fledgling representative portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the most significant influence on creative vision was reserved for the popular sitcom, the HBO sitcom depicting an up-and-coming celebrity succeeding in an often-seedy LA scene (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She discovered it throughout COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and decided to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.

“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she says. The idea for this project came—partly—from personal, originally rocky, move to Los Angeles and from the saturn return, a much-talked-about phenomenon for astrology heads. This represented an era that saw her grasp significant life lessons, work-wise and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”

Starting Out

Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott started creating and acting humor while pursuing theatre 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 states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”

Sennott seized control, taking the stage at live shows with her friend and posting hilarious (and distinctly) bizarre online content on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted several females intensely obsessed with motherhood; a different one imagined working at the brand Hollister as similar to being trapped in a horror film. Interestingly, she met Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up appearing in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of the intense thriller. The big theme of her path, she explains, has been people her own age giving her a shot, as opposed to the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she repeats, stating amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Career Breakthrough

Individuals who were skeptical about Sennott earlier will likely be regretting it today. As part of she calls a “wild, full-circle” story, she seems to have achieved an ideal role. A few years back she posted content titled about Los Angeles on social media, in which she lampooned film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a show about LA residents managing benefits of digital stardom (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your client being accused of being a intoxicated stealer, and potentially becoming a risky outcast). It would be simple to produce a series about digital influence that was extremely aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at the characters. This show avoids both, making for a depiction of affluent young adult life that’s candid about the grot and the appeal.

Nuanced Portrayal

“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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