Rachel Sennott exploring her uproarious comedy portraying that grotty glamour of Gen Z life
The star joins the online meeting and right away launches into an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, appearing genuinely remorseful. Despite being only slightly late, she feels compelled to explain. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, in this context, that’s just what one hopes to encounter. Besides, it’s pretty expected. Anyone familiar with the fearlessly openly gay and brash project Bottoms—which she penned with Emma Seligman and appeared in with her friend the talented actress—can already know that she holds much to say, be it about gender, intimacy, or the merits of creating a teen brawl society. Furthermore, after watching the recent eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she has additional thoughts regarding the challenges of modern youth (At 30, she is a bridge of the gang, a tale-end millennial with a knack for bridging both generations).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and the actress readily acknowledges enthusiastic, citing the show alongside the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as inspirations for the project, which follows the travails of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and aspiring agent Sennott’s character. However, the largest influence on the moodboard was reserved for the popular sitcom, the show about an up-and-coming celebrity making his way in a gritty LA scene (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott started watching it throughout COVID-19, became “captivated”, and chose to create a new version 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 inspiration for this project emerged—to some extent—from personal, at first rocky, relocation to Tinseltown and from the cosmic event, a much-talked-about event for astrology heads. It was a phase that saw her understand significant life lessons, professionally and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” 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…”
Starting Out
Raised in the East Coast, Sennott commenced writing and performing comedy while enrolled in theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “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.”
She took matters into her own hands, appearing at amateur nights with Edebiri and sharing hysterical (and decidedly) unconventional skits on the internet. One, Baby Cult, centered on several females obsessively obsessed with having babies; another envisioned working at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being caught in a thriller. By chance, she met Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ended up starring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her journey, she explains, has been peers offering opportunities, instead of the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, stating humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who questioned about Sennott previously will certainly be kicking themselves today. As part of she labels a “astonishingly complete” story, she appears to manifested her dream vehicle. A few years back she uploaded a clip titled about Los Angeles on social media, in which she parodied film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a comedy about city dwellers juggling benefits of internet fame (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being suspected of being a substance-abusing criminal, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). It would be simple to produce a show about digital influence that was overly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at its subjects. I Love LA avoids both, creating a representation of advantaged twentysomething living that’s honest about the chaos and the shine.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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