Rachel Sennott joins the digital interview and immediately launches into an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, appearing truly apologetic. She is only slightly delayed, she feels compelled to explain. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, during an interview, that’s just what one hopes to encounter. Moreover, it’s pretty expected. Those familiar with her boldly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass project titled Bottoms—which she co-wrote with Emma Seligman and appeared in together with her friend Ayo Edebiri—will understand that Sennott possesses much to share, whether about identity, relationships, or the merits of starting a high-school brawl society. And, once you finish the new multi-episode program titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she has additional perspectives on the challenges of modern youth (At 30, Sennott serves as an honorary member to younger audiences, on the cusp skilled for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott is a fan, naming the show together with Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for the project, which tracks the journey of a social media star Tallulah and close companion who is also new talent manager portrayed by Sennott. However, the biggest influence on creative vision went to the popular sitcom, the HBO sitcom depicting an up-and-coming celebrity navigating in an often-seedy Hollywood (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it amid COVID-19, became “captivated”, and decided to put her own twist 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 says. The concept for the series came—to some extent—from her own, originally fractious, move to Tinseltown and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about phenomenon for enthusiasts. It was an era that saw her grasp some big life lessons, in her career and in private life. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she admits. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Starting Out
Raised in Connecticut, Sennott commenced writing and performing humor while pursuing theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
She decided to act independently, performing at live shows with Ayo and sharing uproarious (and distinctly) unconventional skits on the internet. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on a group of women obsessively drawn to having babies; another imagined working at the brand Hollister as similar to being trapped in a horror film. By chance, she encountered Emma through campus film circles and ultimately featuring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a religious event with shades of the intense thriller. The central motif of her path, she says, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, as opposed to the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, continuing humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who were skeptical about Sennott then will likely be kicking themselves today. As part of she calls a “wild, full-circle” development, she has manifested her dream vehicle. In 2019 she uploaded content titled on LA life on social media, in which she parodied film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a series about city dwellers balancing the perks of internet fame (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being accused of being a drug-addled criminal, and possibly becoming a risky persona non grata). One might simple to create a series about online fame that was horribly aspirational—or, more problematic, one that belittled at those depicted. The series steers clear of each, resulting in a depiction of advantaged young adult life that’s frank about the mess and the appeal.
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 comments. “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
