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Rachel Sennott appears on the digital interview and at once launches into an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, appearing truly regretful. She is only slightly late, she feels compelled to explain. “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 hear. Besides, it’s quite predictable. Those familiar with her unapologetically queer and outspoken movie Bottoms—which she co-wrote with the director and featured in with close companion The Bear’s standout—will be aware that she holds plenty to discuss, ranging from on identity, relationships, or the pros of creating a high-school combat group. Plus, by the end her latest multi-episode HBO series I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she holds even more thoughts about the struggles of modern youth (As a millennial, Sennott serves as an honorary member of the gang, on the cusp adept for straddling both generations).

Inspirations and Creative Vision

The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and the actress is a fan, naming it in addition to the classic series, Insecure and the innovative program as guides for I Love LA, which details the travails of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also aspiring talent manager Sennott’s character. However, the largest spot on the moodboard belonged to the popular sitcom, that HBO sitcom focusing on an emerging A-list actor making his way in a gritty entertainment industry (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She discovered it amid COVID-19, became “hooked”, and chose to create a new version on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.

“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she says. The inspiration for this project originated—to some extent—from her own, at first fractious, relocation to Tinseltown and from her saturn return, a much-talked-about occurrence for astrology heads. This represented an era that saw her grasp major truths, in her career and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she admits. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”

Starting Out

Raised in New England, Sennott commenced writing and performing stand-up while studying theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “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. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”

Sennott decided to act independently, taking the stage at amateur nights with Ayo and posting hysterical (and decidedly) bizarre online content on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on characters fetishistically drawn to motherhood; another portrayed working at a trendy retail outlet as like being stuck in a scary movie. Interestingly, she met Emma through campus film circles and ended up appearing in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a religious event with hints of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her career, she says, has been peers supporting her, rather than traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, continuing with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”

Manifesting Dreams

Those who had doubts regarding Sennott then will certainly be kicking themselves today. Through she describes as a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she seems to have created the perfect project. Previously she posted content named on LA life online, in which she mocked film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a comedy about city dwellers balancing advantages of internet fame (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being accused of being a intoxicated thief, and possibly becoming a unreliable persona non grata). One might easy to produce a show about digital influence that was overly glamorous—or, worse, one that belittled at its subjects. This show avoids both, resulting in a portrait of affluent millennial existence that’s frank about the chaos and the appeal.

Empathetic Approach

“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