The actress and writer exploring the hilarious show about that chaotic allure of today's youth existence
Rachel Sennott joins the digital interview and right away begins an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, sounding truly regretful. Although she's only a bit behind, she wants to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, in this context, that’s just what you want to encounter. Moreover, it’s fairly predictable. Viewers who know her fearlessly queer and outspoken film Bottoms—which she co-wrote with the director and featured in together with her friend Ayo Edebiri—would be aware that Sennott holds a lot to discuss, whether about gender, relationships, or the appeal of creating a high-school brawl society. Furthermore, by the end her new seasonal HBO series titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds further perspectives regarding the struggles of modern youth (As a millennial, she represents an honorary member for this generation, a tale-end millennial adept for connecting both generations).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and the actress is a fan, referencing the show alongside the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as guides for the project, which follows the travails of online personality Tallulah and her friend and fledgling talent manager portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the most significant influence on concept belonged to Entourage, that HBO sitcom depicting an emerging Hollywood star navigating in a corrupt entertainment industry (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She discovered it amid lockdown, became “hooked”, and decided to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The concept for I Love LA originated—in part—from personal, initially rocky, relocation to Los Angeles and from her astrological phase, a frequently discussed occurrence for astrology heads. It was a time that involved her grasp major life lessons, professionally and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in New England, Sennott started creating and acting stand-up while enrolled in theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott seized control, appearing at open mics with her friend and sharing hysterical (and decidedly) bizarre comedy videos online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on several females intensely obsessed with motherhood; a different one envisioned working at the brand Hollister as akin to being stuck in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Seligman through the university’s film scene and ultimately featuring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a religious event with hints of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her path, she notes, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, instead of traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, continuing amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Individuals who questioned about Sennott previously will surely be regretting it today. As part of she describes as a “astonishingly complete” development, she has achieved the perfect project. A few years back she posted content titled on LA life online, in which she mocked film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a show about city dwellers juggling benefits of digital stardom (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being labeled as being a drug-addled criminal, and possibly becoming a risky outcast). One might easy to make a show about internet celebrity that was overly glamorous—or, worse, one that mocked at those depicted. The series avoids both, making for a portrait of advantaged young adult existence that’s frank about the grot and the glamour.
Balanced Perspective
“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