The actress and writer on her hilarious comedy portraying that messy allure of Gen Z life
Rachel Sennott joins the video call and at once launches into an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, sounding really remorseful. She is only a bit late, she needs to clarify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, for a writer, this is exactly what one hopes to hear. Moreover, it’s quite unsurprising. Those who have seen the boldly LGBTQ+ and brash movie Bottoms—that Sennott penned with Emma Seligman and appeared in with her friend the talented actress—can be aware that Sennott possesses much to share, whether on gender, intimacy, or the appeal of creating a teen fight club. Furthermore, by the end her latest multi-episode program titled I Love LA, it is clear that she has further insights regarding the struggles of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, she represents an honorary member for this generation, on the cusp adept for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Artistic Direction
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, naming the show together with the HBO hit, Insecure and the innovative program as influences for I Love LA, which details the journey of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also aspiring representative Sennott’s character. However, the most significant presence on creative vision belonged to the popular sitcom, the program depicting a rising Hollywood star succeeding in an often-seedy Hollywood (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott discovered it throughout the pandemic, became “hooked”, and chose to put her own twist 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 notes. The idea for this project emerged—to some extent—from firsthand, at first difficult, move to Tinseltown and from the astrological phase, a much-talked-about occurrence for astrology heads. This represented a phase that involved her grasp major life lessons, professionally and personally. “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.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Humble Origins
Brought up in New England, the star started writing and performing comedy while pursuing acting 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 states. “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. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She seized control, performing at open mics with Edebiri and posting uproarious (and distinctly) weird skits digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted several females intensely obsessed with having babies; another portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being trapped in a thriller. Interestingly, she connected with Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up starring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a Jewish wake with shades of the intense thriller. The central motif of her journey, she explains, has been people her own age offering opportunities, rather than traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she repeats, adding humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Individuals who were skeptical about Sennott then will surely be kicking themselves currently. Through she describes as a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she appears to achieved the perfect project. Previously she uploaded a clip named on LA life on the internet, in which she lampooned film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a series about Angelenos managing advantages of digital stardom (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being labeled as being a intoxicated criminal, and perhaps becoming a unreliable pariah). It would be tempting to produce a series about online fame that was overly aspirational—or, worse, one that mocked at its subjects. I Love LA avoids both, creating a representation of privileged millennial existence that’s frank about the grot and the appeal.
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 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
