Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and right away begins an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, sounding genuinely apologetic. Although she's only slightly late, she needs to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, during an interview, that’s precisely what is ideal to encounter. Besides, it’s quite unsurprising. Anyone familiar with her boldly LGBTQ+ and outspoken movie Bottoms—which Sennott penned with Emma Seligman and appeared in together with her friend Ayo Edebiri—can already know that she has plenty to say, whether about identity, sex, or the pros of creating a teen fight club. Plus, once you finish her recent seasonal HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that the star has further thoughts about the darker side of young adulthood (At 30, she represents an honorary member of the gang, straddling eras with a knack for bridging different age groups).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and Sennott readily acknowledges a fan, citing it alongside the HBO hit, Insecure and the innovative program as influences for her series, which details the travails of a social media star Tallulah and ally and fledgling agent Maia. Notably, the most significant presence on concept belonged to the popular sitcom, that program about an emerging A-list actor succeeding in a corrupt LA scene (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She began viewing it during the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and resolved to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she explains. The idea for the series originated—in part—from her own, originally rocky, move to Tinseltown and from the astrological phase, a popular phenomenon for followers. It was a time that saw her grasp some big truths, in her career 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…”
Starting Out
Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott started writing and performing comedy while enrolled in acting at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “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. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She decided to act independently, taking the stage at live shows with Ayo and sharing uproarious (and distinctly) weird online content digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on characters intensely fixated on motherhood; a different one imagined working at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being stuck in a thriller. By chance, she met Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up starring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a Jewish wake with hints of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her career, she explains, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, as opposed to established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, stating amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who had doubts about Sennott previously will surely be regretting it today. In what she describes as a “incredibly circular” story, she appears to created an ideal role. A few years back she shared content named about Los Angeles online, in which she parodied movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a show about Angelenos juggling the perks of online celebrity (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being suspected of being a intoxicated criminal, and possibly becoming a unreliable pariah). Some could easy to create a show about online fame that was extremely glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at its subjects. The series does neither, creating a representation of privileged twentysomething existence that’s candid about the mess and the shine.
Empathetic Approach
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” she says. “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
