The actress and writer discussing her hilarious show about the messy glamour of younger generation existence
Rachel Sennott enters the digital interview and immediately launches into an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, seeming truly remorseful. She is only slightly delayed, she needs to explain. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s precisely what one hopes to encounter. Moreover, it’s pretty predictable. Those who know her boldly openly gay and outspoken film Bottoms—which she co-wrote with her creative partner and featured in alongside close companion The Bear’s standout—will already know that Sennott has a lot to say, ranging from on gender, intimacy, or the appeal of starting a high-school brawl society. Plus, after watching her recent seasonal HBO series I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star carries additional perspectives on the challenges of modern youth (At 30, Sennott serves as a bridge for this generation, straddling eras with a knack for connecting different age groups).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and the actress readily acknowledges enthusiastic, citing the show together with Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as influences for her series, which tracks the struggles of an influencer Tallulah and her friend and aspiring representative Maia. Perhaps, the biggest presence on concept went to the HBO series, the HBO sitcom about an emerging A-list actor making his way in a corrupt entertainment industry (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She started watching it amid lockdown, became “obsessed”, and decided to add a fresh perspective on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she explains. The idea for this project emerged—in part—from personal, at first rocky, move to LA and from her saturn return, a popular event for followers. It was an era that saw her grasp major life lessons, professionally and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Starting Out
Brought up in New England, Sennott commenced 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.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott decided to act independently, taking the stage at live shows with her friend and uploading hilarious (and very) bizarre online content on the internet. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted several females obsessively drawn to pregnancy; another imagined being employed at a trendy retail outlet as like being trapped in a horror film. Interestingly, she connected with Seligman through NYU’s movie community and eventually starring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her path, she notes, has been peers offering opportunities, instead of the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, continuing with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who questioned regarding Sennott previously will certainly be regretting it today. As part of she describes as a “incredibly circular” story, she appears to manifested the perfect project. Previously she posted a clip named on LA life online, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about LA residents balancing benefits of online celebrity (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being suspected of being a substance-abusing stealer, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). One might easy to produce a series about online fame that was overly aspirational—or, worse, one that mocked at the characters. The series steers clear of each, creating a depiction of privileged twentysomething living that’s candid about the chaos 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
