Rachel Sennott exploring the hilarious show depicting that messy appeal of today's youth existence
The performer enters the online meeting and at once launches into an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, sounding truly apologetic. She is only a couple of minutes late, she wants to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, in this context, that’s precisely what one hopes to hear. Besides, it’s fairly unsurprising. Anyone familiar with the unapologetically queer and outspoken project Bottoms—that Sennott penned with Emma Seligman and starred in alongside collaborator The Bear’s standout—can already know that she has much to say, whether about gender, sex, or the merits of starting a high-school combat group. Furthermore, by the end her latest seasonal show titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star has additional insights about the challenges of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, she represents an honorary member of the gang, on the cusp adept for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
Parallels to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott readily acknowledges enthusiastic, citing the show alongside Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as inspirations for I Love LA, which follows the struggles of a social media star Tallulah and close companion who is also aspiring talent manager portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the most significant presence on concept was reserved for Entourage, the show about a rising A-list actor navigating in a corrupt entertainment industry (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She started watching it amid COVID-19, became “hooked”, and decided to add a fresh perspective on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she explains. The concept for I Love LA emerged—partly—from firsthand, at first fractious, transition to Los Angeles and from her cosmic event, a much-talked-about event for followers. That period marked a time that involved her grasp significant truths, in her career and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she says. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Starting Out
Growing up in the East Coast, Sennott began developing and showcasing humor while enrolled in theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott seized control, taking the stage at amateur nights with Edebiri and posting uproarious (and decidedly) unconventional online content on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women fetishistically fixated on motherhood; a different one portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being trapped in a scary movie. By chance, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and ended up starring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a Jewish wake with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her journey, she explains, has been people her own age supporting her, instead of the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, continuing humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Individuals who had doubts regarding her then will surely be feeling foolish today. In what she calls a “incredibly circular” story, she seems to have created an ideal role. In 2019 she posted a clip called about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she lampooned film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about LA residents balancing benefits of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being accused of being a drug-addled thief, and possibly becoming a unreliable persona non grata). It would be simple to create a program about internet celebrity that was horribly aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at its subjects. This show steers clear of each, creating a depiction of privileged twentysomething living that’s honest about the mess and the appeal.
Empathetic Approach
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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