The actress and writer exploring her side-splitting comedy depicting the chaotic appeal of Gen Z lifestyle
Rachel Sennott appears on the video call and immediately begins an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, sounding really regretful. Despite being only a bit delayed, she needs to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, for a writer, this is just what is ideal to hear. Additionally, it’s pretty unsurprising. Anyone who have seen the boldly LGBTQ+ and brash film Bottoms—which Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and featured in alongside close companion the talented actress—will already know that Sennott has a lot to discuss, ranging from on identity, relationships, or the pros of creating a teen combat group. Plus, once you finish the new multi-episode HBO series titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star has even more thoughts regarding the struggles of Gen Z life (At 30, she serves as an honorary member for this generation, straddling eras adept for straddling different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and Sennott readily acknowledges an admirer, referencing it in addition to Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as influences for the project, which tracks the struggles of an influencer Tallulah and ally who is also aspiring talent manager portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the biggest spot on concept went to Entourage, that program about an up-and-coming Hollywood star making his way in an often-seedy Hollywood (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it throughout the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and decided to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she explains. The idea for I Love LA originated—partly—from personal, originally difficult, relocation to LA and from the astrological phase, a popular event for followers. This represented an era that involved her grasp significant truths, work-wise and individually. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Starting Out
Brought up in New England, the star started creating and acting humor while enrolled in acting at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She took matters into her own hands, appearing at live shows with Ayo and sharing hysterical (and decidedly) weird skits online. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on characters fetishistically fixated on pregnancy; another imagined working at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being trapped in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Emma through campus film circles and eventually featuring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a Jewish wake with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her path, she explains, has been people her own age supporting her, rather than established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, continuing amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Those who questioned regarding her then will likely be kicking themselves today. Through she calls a “incredibly circular” story, she seems to have manifested the perfect project. A few years back she shared a clip named “it’s LA” online, in which she parodied film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a series about Angelenos juggling advantages of digital stardom (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your friend being labeled as being a intoxicated stealer, and perhaps becoming a risky pariah). It would be tempting to produce a series about internet celebrity that was extremely idealized—or, more problematic, one that punched down at the characters. I Love LA does neither, making for a portrait of privileged millennial life that’s candid 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 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
