Rachel Sennott appears on the video call and immediately begins an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, seeming truly regretful. She is only a couple of minutes delayed, she wants to explain. “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 exactly what one hopes to encounter. Additionally, it’s fairly expected. Viewers who have seen the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and brash project Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with the director and featured in with collaborator the talented actress—will be aware that Sennott possesses a lot to share, whether about identity, intimacy, or the appeal of creating a teen fight club. Plus, by the end her recent multi-episode HBO series titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she carries further insights on the darker side of young adulthood (As a millennial, she serves as an honorary member of the gang, a tale-end millennial adept for bridging different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and Sennott readily acknowledges enthusiastic, naming it alongside Sex and the City, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as guides for the project, which details the struggles of online personality Tallulah and close companion who is also new representative portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the most significant spot on the moodboard went to the popular sitcom, that program depicting a rising Hollywood star making his way in a corrupt LA scene (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She began viewing it during the pandemic, became “hooked”, and decided to create a new version 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 the series originated—in part—from personal, initially rocky, move to LA and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about event for followers. It was a phase that included her learn some big truths, work-wise and individually. “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. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in the East Coast, Sennott started creating and acting stand-up while studying acting at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, appearing at live shows with Edebiri and sharing hysterical (and distinctly) unconventional skits digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, followed a group of women fetishistically obsessed with motherhood; another imagined being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being trapped in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Seligman through the university’s film scene and eventually appearing in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her career, she notes, has been peers offering opportunities, rather than traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she confirms, adding with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Individuals who were skeptical regarding her then will certainly be feeling foolish now. As part of she describes as a “astonishingly complete” story, she seems to have created her dream vehicle. A few years back she shared a video titled on LA life on the internet, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a show about LA residents juggling the perks of digital stardom (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your friend being accused of being a drug-addled thief, and perhaps becoming a unreliable outcast). It would be simple to make a program about digital influence that was horribly aspirational—or, worse, one that belittled at its subjects. This show does neither, making for a representation of privileged twentysomething existence that’s honest about the grot and the appeal.
Empathetic Approach
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
