Rachel Sennott joins the video call and immediately launches into an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, appearing truly regretful. Despite being only a couple of minutes delayed, she needs to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, during an interview, this is exactly what you want to hear. Besides, it’s pretty expected. Viewers who know the boldly queer and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—that she collaborated on with the director and featured in together with her friend the talented actress—would understand that she has a lot to discuss, whether about roles, sex, or the merits of forming a youth brawl society. Plus, once you finish the recent multi-episode program I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she holds even more perspectives about the darker side of modern youth (Now in her thirties, she serves as a bridge for this generation, on the cusp adept for bridging both generations).
Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and the actress is an admirer, citing it alongside the classic series, Insecure and Atlanta as inspirations for the project, which tracks the struggles of online personality Tallulah and close companion and fledgling agent Maia. However, the most significant presence on the moodboard was reserved for the popular sitcom, the program depicting an emerging celebrity making his way in a gritty LA scene (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She started watching it during lockdown, became “hooked”, and chose to put her own twist 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 idea for the series emerged—to some extent—from her own, initially rocky, move to Tinseltown and from her astrological phase, a popular event for astrology heads. It was a time that saw her understand significant truths, work-wise and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Starting Out
Raised in New England, the star started developing and showcasing comedy while enrolled in performance at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She seized control, taking the stage at open mics with Ayo and sharing uproarious (and decidedly) bizarre comedy videos digitally. One, Baby Cult, depicted several females fetishistically drawn to motherhood; a different one imagined working at the brand Hollister as like being caught in a horror film. By chance, she met Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ultimately appearing in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a religious event with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her path, she explains, has been people her own age supporting her, rather than traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, adding humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who were skeptical about her then will likely be regretting it currently. As part of she describes as a “incredibly circular” development, she seems to have manifested her dream vehicle. A few years back she posted a clip named “it’s LA” online, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a show about city dwellers juggling advantages of online celebrity (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being labeled as being a drug-addled thief, and possibly becoming a risky persona non grata). One might tempting to make a program about digital influence that was extremely idealized—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at those depicted. This show avoids both, making for a representation of privileged twentysomething existence that’s honest about the chaos and the glamour.
Empathetic Approach
“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
