Rachel Sennott appears on the digital interview and immediately launches into an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, appearing really apologetic. She is only a bit behind, she feels compelled 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 exactly what one hopes to hear. Additionally, it’s fairly predictable. Anyone who have seen the fearlessly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass project titled Bottoms—which she co-wrote with the director and appeared in together with her friend Ayo Edebiri—would be aware that she has a lot to discuss, be it on roles, intimacy, or the appeal of creating a teen combat group. And, after watching the new multi-episode HBO series titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she has even more insights on the challenges of Gen Z life (At 30, she serves as an honorary member of the gang, straddling eras with a knack for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and the actress is enthusiastic, referencing it together with Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as inspirations for her series, which tracks the journey of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also new talent manager Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the largest spot on concept belonged to Entourage, the show about a rising Hollywood star succeeding in a corrupt LA scene (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott started watching it amid the pandemic, became “captivated”, and decided to add a fresh perspective on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she explains. The inspiration for this project came—in part—from personal, originally difficult, relocation to LA and from the astrological phase, a frequently discussed event for enthusiasts. This represented an era that saw her grasp major life lessons, in her career and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Starting Out
Growing up in the East Coast, Sennott began creating and acting comedy while enrolled in performance at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She decided to act independently, performing at amateur nights with Ayo and sharing uproarious (and decidedly) bizarre comedy videos digitally. One, Baby Cult, centered on characters obsessively obsessed with pregnancy; a different one portrayed working at a trendy retail outlet as like being trapped in a scary movie. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her path, she notes, has been people her own age offering opportunities, rather than the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, adding humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who had doubts regarding her earlier will certainly be regretting it now. Through she labels a “wild, full-circle” story, she seems to have created her dream vehicle. In 2019 she uploaded content called “it’s LA” online, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a series about Angelenos balancing advantages of digital stardom (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your friend being accused of being a substance-abusing stealer, and potentially becoming a risky outcast). It would be easy to create a series about digital influence that was horribly idealized—or, worse, one that belittled at its subjects. The series does neither, creating a portrait of advantaged young adult existence that’s honest about the chaos and the shine.
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
