Rachel Sennott discussing her side-splitting comedy portraying that grotty allure of younger generation lifestyle
The performer joins the digital interview and immediately starts an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, seeming really apologetic. Although she's only a bit late, she feels compelled to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Fortunately, during an interview, that’s just what one hopes to experience. Additionally, it’s fairly predictable. Anyone familiar with the fearlessly openly gay and unapologetically crass film Bottoms—which Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and featured in alongside her friend Ayo Edebiri—would understand that she possesses much to say, be it about gender, relationships, or the appeal of starting a teen fight club. Plus, once you finish her recent seasonal show I Love LA, it is clear that the star has even more thoughts regarding the struggles of modern youth (Now in her thirties, she represents a relatable figure to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial skilled for bridging both generations).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and the actress readily acknowledges enthusiastic, referencing the show together with the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as guides for I Love LA, which follows the travails of an influencer Tallulah and her friend who is also new talent manager Maia. Notably, the largest spot on the moodboard belonged to the HBO series, the HBO sitcom depicting an emerging A-list actor making his way in a gritty Hollywood (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She started watching it throughout lockdown, became “hooked”, and decided to create a new version on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she notes. The idea for the series came—partly—from personal, initially difficult, relocation to LA and from her cosmic event, a popular event for astrology heads. This represented a phase that included her learn significant life lessons, work-wise and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Starting Out
Raised in Connecticut, Sennott began creating and acting humor while enrolled in acting 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.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott seized control, appearing at live shows with Edebiri and sharing hilarious (and distinctly) unconventional skits online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted a group of women obsessively fixated on having babies; another envisioned being employed at the brand Hollister as similar to being stuck in a horror film. By chance, she encountered Seligman through campus film circles and ended up featuring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a religious event with shades of the intense thriller. The central motif of her path, she says, has been people her own age supporting her, instead of traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, continuing humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Individuals who were skeptical about Sennott earlier will surely be regretting it currently. In what she describes as a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she seems to have created her dream vehicle. A few years back she uploaded a clip called about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she parodied film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a series about Angelenos managing advantages of online celebrity (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being labeled as being a substance-abusing stealer, and perhaps becoming a unreliable pariah). It would be simple to create a show about digital influence that was extremely aspirational—or, more problematic, one that punched down at those depicted. This show avoids both, making for a representation of advantaged millennial living that’s honest about the mess and the shine.
Empathetic Approach
“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