Rachel Sennott joins the video call and at once begins an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, appearing truly apologetic. Despite being only a bit late, she wants to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, during an interview, that’s precisely what you want to hear. Additionally, it’s fairly unsurprising. Anyone who know her boldly LGBTQ+ and outspoken project Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and featured in together with her friend the talented actress—will understand that she has much to share, ranging from about roles, relationships, or the appeal of forming a teen fight club. Furthermore, once you finish her recent eight-part program I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries even more perspectives regarding the darker side of modern youth (At 30, Sennott is a bridge of the gang, straddling eras adept for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and the actress is enthusiastic, naming the show alongside Sex and the City, Insecure and Atlanta as influences for her series, which details the struggles of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and new agent Sennott’s character. Notably, the largest spot on concept was reserved for Entourage, the program depicting a rising celebrity navigating in a gritty LA scene (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She discovered it throughout lockdown, became “obsessed”, and resolved to put her own twist on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she notes. The idea for this project originated—to some extent—from personal, originally fractious, move to LA and from her astrological phase, a frequently discussed occurrence for followers. It was a phase that saw her understand significant insights, in her career and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Starting Out
Brought up in the East Coast, Sennott began creating and acting stand-up while enrolled in performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, appearing at amateur nights with Ayo and uploading hysterical (and distinctly) weird skits on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on several females fetishistically drawn to pregnancy; another imagined being employed at the brand Hollister as akin to being trapped in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Seligman through campus film circles and ended up starring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a religious event with shades of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her journey, she notes, has been contemporaries supporting her, rather than established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, stating humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who were skeptical regarding Sennott earlier will surely be feeling foolish now. As part of she labels a “incredibly circular” story, she has created her dream vehicle. Previously she shared content named on LA life online, in which she mocked film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a series about Angelenos balancing advantages of online celebrity (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being labeled as being a intoxicated criminal, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). One might simple to make a program about internet celebrity that was horribly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at its subjects. I Love LA avoids both, making for a representation of advantaged twentysomething existence that’s candid about the grot and the glamour.
Balanced Perspective
“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
