Rachel Sennott enters the digital interview and immediately launches into an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, seeming really regretful. Despite being only a bit behind, she feels compelled 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!” Luckily, during an interview, this is precisely what you want to experience. Besides, it’s quite expected. Anyone who know the boldly openly gay and outspoken project Bottoms—that she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and starred in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—can understand that Sennott possesses plenty to say, be it about gender, sex, or the pros of forming a youth brawl society. Plus, by the end her recent seasonal program titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star has further insights regarding the struggles of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, Sennott serves as a relatable figure of the gang, straddling eras with a knack for straddling different age groups).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott readily acknowledges a fan, naming the show together with the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as inspirations for the project, which tracks the struggles of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also fledgling agent Sennott’s character. However, the most significant spot on the moodboard belonged to the HBO series, that HBO sitcom depicting an up-and-coming Hollywood star succeeding in a gritty entertainment industry (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it throughout the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and chose 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 explains. The concept for this project originated—in part—from her own, originally fractious, move to LA and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about phenomenon for enthusiasts. This represented an era that saw her understand significant life lessons, work-wise and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in the East Coast, Sennott commenced writing and performing comedy while studying performance at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “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. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
She seized control, appearing at amateur nights with her friend and posting hysterical (and distinctly) weird skits online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted characters obsessively drawn to having babies; a different one imagined working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being trapped in a horror film. Interestingly, she connected with Seligman through campus film circles and ultimately featuring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her career, she says, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, rather than traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, adding amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who questioned regarding Sennott earlier will certainly be regretting it now. As part of she calls a “wild, full-circle” development, she has created the perfect project. In 2019 she uploaded content called about Los Angeles online, in which she parodied film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a comedy about LA residents juggling advantages of digital stardom (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being accused of being a intoxicated thief, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). One might easy to make a series about internet celebrity that was horribly idealized—or, more problematic, one that punched down at those depicted. The series does neither, creating a depiction of advantaged millennial existence that’s frank about the grot and the shine.
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 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