Rachel Sennott discussing the hilarious series depicting that messy appeal of younger generation lifestyle
The star joins the online meeting and at once launches into an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, appearing really regretful. Although she's only a bit late, she wants to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, during an interview, that’s just what you want to encounter. Additionally, it’s quite unsurprising. Those familiar with her boldly openly gay and outspoken film titled Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with Emma Seligman and appeared in with close companion Ayo Edebiri—would already know that she possesses plenty to say, be it on roles, relationships, or the appeal of starting a youth combat group. Plus, once you finish the new seasonal HBO series I Love LA, viewers realize that the star has even more perspectives on the struggles of young adulthood (As a millennial, she represents a bridge of the gang, straddling eras adept for bridging both generations).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott readily acknowledges a fan, naming the show in addition to the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for the project, which tracks the struggles of online personality Tallulah and ally who is also aspiring representative Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the biggest spot on concept belonged to the HBO series, the HBO sitcom focusing on a rising A-list actor succeeding in a gritty Hollywood (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott discovered it throughout the pandemic, became “captivated”, and decided to add a fresh perspective on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she says. The idea for the series came—in part—from firsthand, initially fractious, move to Los Angeles and from her saturn return, a much-talked-about phenomenon for astrology heads. That period marked a phase that included her learn major insights, professionally and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott started writing and performing comedy while enrolled in performance at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at live shows with Ayo and uploading hysterical (and distinctly) bizarre comedy videos digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, followed several females obsessively fixated on motherhood; a different one envisioned being employed at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being caught in a scary movie. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and eventually appearing in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her journey, she says, has been people her own age supporting her, rather than established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she repeats, adding amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Individuals who were skeptical regarding Sennott previously will surely be kicking themselves now. In what she labels a “astonishingly complete” development, she appears to achieved the perfect project. Previously she uploaded content titled about Los Angeles online, in which she mocked film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a comedy about LA residents juggling the perks of internet fame (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your client being suspected of being a drug-addled thief, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). Some could tempting to produce a series about internet celebrity that was extremely aspirational—or, more problematic, one that mocked at those depicted. The series does neither, creating a depiction of privileged young adult life that’s candid about the grot and the shine.
Nuanced Portrayal
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” she observes. “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