Rachel Sennott joins the video call and right away begins an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, seeming really regretful. She is only a bit behind, she needs to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, for a writer, that’s precisely what you want to experience. Moreover, it’s fairly unsurprising. Viewers who have seen her unapologetically LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass film Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with the director and starred in together with close companion The Bear’s standout—would already know that she holds a lot to discuss, be it about gender, relationships, or the merits of forming a high-school combat group. Furthermore, by the end her new eight-part show I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she carries even more thoughts regarding the struggles of modern youth (Now in her thirties, she is an honorary member of the gang, straddling eras skilled for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and the actress readily acknowledges a fan, referencing the show in addition to Sex and the City, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as guides for the project, which details the journey of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and new agent Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the most significant presence on concept was reserved for the popular sitcom, the program about an up-and-coming celebrity making his way in an often-seedy LA scene (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott discovered it during the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and chose to add a fresh perspective on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she notes. The concept for I Love LA emerged—to some extent—from her own, originally rocky, transition to Tinseltown and from her astrological phase, a popular event for astrology heads. This represented a time that involved her learn significant insights, work-wise and in private life. “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.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Raised in New England, Sennott began creating and acting comedy while pursuing acting at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. 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 decided to act independently, performing at amateur nights with Ayo and uploading uproarious (and distinctly) weird skits online. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on a group of women fetishistically fixated on pregnancy; a different one envisioned working at the brand Hollister as akin to being caught in a thriller. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and ultimately featuring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a funeral gathering with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her journey, she explains, has been contemporaries supporting her, rather than traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, continuing humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who questioned regarding her then will surely be kicking themselves now. Through she calls a “astonishingly complete” story, she appears to manifested her dream vehicle. In 2019 she shared content called on LA life on social media, in which she mocked movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a comedy about Angelenos managing the perks of online celebrity (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being labeled as being a drug-addled thief, and perhaps becoming a risky outcast). It would be tempting to create a program about digital influence that was overly idealized—or, more problematic, one that mocked at those depicted. I Love LA avoids both, creating a depiction of advantaged twentysomething living that’s candid about the mess and the appeal.
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
