The actress and writer exploring the hilarious show portraying that grotty glamour of Gen Z existence
Rachel Sennott joins the video call and right away starts an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, seeming genuinely remorseful. Although she's only a bit behind, she feels compelled to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, for a writer, that’s precisely what you want to experience. Additionally, it’s pretty unsurprising. Those who have seen her unapologetically openly gay and outspoken film titled Bottoms—which she collaborated on with her creative partner and appeared in alongside close companion Ayo Edebiri—will already know that she has a lot to discuss, whether on roles, sex, or the pros of starting a teen fight club. Furthermore, once you finish the recent seasonal HBO series titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she has additional insights regarding the challenges of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott represents an honorary member to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial adept for connecting different age groups).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, referencing the show together with Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as influences for I Love LA, which follows the journey of a social media star Tallulah and close companion who is also aspiring representative Sennott’s character. However, the most significant influence on creative vision went to the popular sitcom, that HBO sitcom about a rising Hollywood star making his way in a corrupt Hollywood (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott discovered it throughout the pandemic, became “hooked”, and chose to put her own twist on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The inspiration for this project came—partly—from her own, at first difficult, relocation to Los Angeles and from her saturn return, a much-talked-about occurrence for astrology heads. That period marked a phase that saw her learn significant life lessons, work-wise and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Starting Out
Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott began creating and acting stand-up while pursuing theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott seized control, appearing at amateur nights with Edebiri and sharing uproarious (and decidedly) unconventional online content online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on several females obsessively drawn to having babies; a different one envisioned working at the brand Hollister as like being caught in a thriller. By chance, she encountered Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ended up featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a funeral gathering with echoes of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her journey, she notes, has been peers supporting her, instead of the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, adding with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Rising Success
Those who had doubts about her earlier will certainly be feeling foolish now. Through she labels a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she has manifested an ideal role. Previously she shared a video titled about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she lampooned film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a show about Angelenos managing benefits of online celebrity (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your associate being labeled as being a intoxicated stealer, and potentially becoming a risky persona non grata). One might easy to produce a program about digital influence that was overly idealized—or, more problematic, one that belittled at the characters. The series steers clear of each, creating a representation of affluent young adult living that’s candid about the mess and the glamour.
Empathetic Approach
“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
