Rachel Sennott exploring her side-splitting series about the messy glamour of Gen Z lifestyle
The performer enters the online meeting and right away starts an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, sounding truly regretful. Although she's only slightly late, she wants 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, for a writer, that’s just what one hopes to experience. Besides, it’s fairly unsurprising. Viewers who have seen her boldly queer and outspoken movie Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with the director and appeared in with close companion the talented actress—would be aware that she holds much to discuss, be it on roles, relationships, or the appeal of starting a high-school fight club. And, once you finish the latest seasonal show titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star has additional thoughts regarding the struggles of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, she is a bridge for this generation, a tale-end millennial adept for connecting different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and the actress is an admirer, citing it alongside the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as inspirations for her series, which details the travails of an influencer Tallulah and her friend who is also aspiring talent manager Maia. Notably, the largest influence on creative vision belonged to the HBO series, the show depicting an emerging celebrity succeeding in a gritty LA scene (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott began viewing it amid lockdown, became “hooked”, and decided to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The concept for this project originated—partly—from firsthand, at first rocky, move to Los Angeles and from the cosmic event, a much-talked-about occurrence for astrology heads. That period marked a phase that involved her understand some big insights, in her career and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Humble Origins
Raised in the East Coast, the star commenced creating and acting comedy while enrolled in performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she explains. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She seized control, appearing at open mics with her friend and uploading uproarious (and distinctly) bizarre skits digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on several females intensely obsessed with having babies; a different one envisioned being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being trapped in a horror film. By chance, she connected with Seligman through the university’s film scene and eventually appearing in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a religious event with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her journey, she notes, has been people her own age giving her a shot, instead of established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she confirms, adding with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who were skeptical regarding her previously will certainly be feeling foolish currently. As part of she calls a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she seems to have created the perfect project. A few years back she shared a video titled about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she parodied film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a series about Angelenos balancing advantages of digital stardom (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your friend being suspected of being a substance-abusing criminal, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). One might simple to make a program about digital influence that was overly idealized—or, more problematic, one that punched down at those depicted. This show avoids both, creating a depiction of affluent young adult life that’s candid about the grot and the glamour.
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