The actress and writer on the uproarious series portraying that grotty glamour of today's youth life
Rachel Sennott joins the video call and at once starts an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, appearing really remorseful. Although she's only a couple of minutes late, she wants to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, for a writer, that’s exactly what you want to experience. Additionally, it’s quite predictable. Those who have seen the unapologetically queer and unapologetically crass movie titled Bottoms—which she co-wrote with Emma Seligman and starred in alongside her friend The Bear’s standout—will be aware that Sennott has much to discuss, ranging from on gender, intimacy, or the pros of forming a teen combat group. Furthermore, after watching the new multi-episode show titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star has even more perspectives regarding the struggles of modern youth (Now in her thirties, she represents a relatable figure of the gang, a tale-end millennial adept for connecting different age groups).
Influences and Artistic Direction
Parallels to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and the actress admits to being a fan, referencing the show together with Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as influences for the project, which tracks the struggles of a social media star Tallulah and her friend who is also new representative Maia. Notably, the biggest presence on concept belonged to the popular sitcom, the show about an emerging celebrity navigating in a gritty LA scene (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She started watching it during lockdown, became “captivated”, and resolved to create a new version 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 inspiration for I Love LA emerged—to some extent—from personal, initially rocky, move to LA and from the cosmic event, a popular occurrence for followers. This represented an era that involved her learn major truths, work-wise and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Early Beginnings
Raised in New England, the star started creating and acting comedy while enrolled in acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “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. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott seized control, taking the stage at amateur nights with Edebiri and sharing uproarious (and decidedly) unconventional skits digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on characters obsessively obsessed with pregnancy; a different one portrayed being employed at the brand Hollister as similar to being caught in a scary movie. By chance, she encountered Emma through campus film circles and eventually featuring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a religious event with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her journey, she explains, has been peers giving her a shot, as opposed to the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, adding amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who had doubts regarding her previously will likely be regretting it today. In what she calls a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she has manifested the perfect project. Previously she posted a video named “it’s LA” on social media, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a series about LA residents juggling benefits of internet fame (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your associate being suspected of being a intoxicated thief, and perhaps becoming a unreliable pariah). One might simple to make a program about internet celebrity that was horribly glamorous—or, worse, one that belittled at those depicted. I Love LA steers clear of each, making for a depiction of privileged twentysomething existence that’s candid about the grot and the glamour.
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
