Rachel Sennott exploring her side-splitting series portraying that grotty glamour of today's youth lifestyle
The performer enters the digital interview and right away starts an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, seeming really apologetic. Although she's only a couple of minutes delayed, she needs to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Fortunately, in this context, that’s exactly what is ideal to hear. Additionally, it’s fairly predictable. Those who know her unapologetically queer and outspoken film titled Bottoms—that Sennott penned with the director and appeared in together with close companion The Bear’s standout—can understand that Sennott has plenty to share, be it on gender, intimacy, or the merits of starting a high-school fight club. And, after watching the latest eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she has additional perspectives on the darker side of Gen Z life (As a millennial, Sennott serves as a bridge for this generation, on the cusp with a knack for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and the actress is an admirer, citing it in addition to Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as influences for the project, which details the struggles of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also aspiring representative Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the biggest spot on the moodboard went to the HBO series, the HBO sitcom about a rising A-list actor navigating in a gritty Hollywood (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott began viewing it throughout lockdown, became “hooked”, and chose to create a new version on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The inspiration for this project came—to some extent—from personal, initially difficult, transition to Los Angeles and from the cosmic event, a frequently discussed occurrence for astrology heads. It was a phase that included her grasp some big insights, work-wise and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Starting Out
Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott commenced creating and acting humor while studying acting at NYU’s Tisch. “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.”
Sennott seized control, performing at open mics with her friend and posting uproarious (and decidedly) bizarre comedy videos digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on a group of women obsessively obsessed with motherhood; another imagined working at the brand Hollister as like being trapped in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and ultimately appearing in her first film, Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a funeral gathering with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her path, she explains, has been people her own age supporting her, as opposed to the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, continuing humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Individuals who had doubts regarding her previously will likely be regretting it now. As part of she calls a “astonishingly complete” development, she has created the perfect project. Previously she uploaded a clip titled “it’s LA” online, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a show about city dwellers juggling advantages of digital stardom (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being suspected of being a intoxicated thief, and potentially becoming a unreliable pariah). Some could simple to produce a program about internet celebrity that was extremely idealized—or, worse, one that punched down at the characters. This show does neither, resulting in a representation of affluent twentysomething living that’s frank about the grot and the shine.
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