Rachel Sennott appears on the online meeting and right away begins an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, sounding really apologetic. She is only slightly late, she feels compelled to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, in this context, this is precisely what is ideal to experience. Moreover, it’s pretty unsurprising. Viewers familiar with the fearlessly openly gay and outspoken film titled Bottoms—which Sennott penned with her creative partner and starred in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—will understand that Sennott holds a lot to discuss, be it on identity, relationships, or the appeal of starting a teen combat group. Furthermore, once you finish the recent seasonal HBO series I Love LA, viewers realize that the star has additional thoughts on the challenges of Gen Z life (As a millennial, Sennott is an honorary member of the gang, a tale-end millennial adept for straddling different age groups).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott admits to being an admirer, referencing it alongside Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as inspirations for the project, which follows the travails of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion and aspiring representative Maia. However, the largest influence on concept belonged to the popular sitcom, that program focusing on a rising A-list actor succeeding in a corrupt Hollywood (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She started watching it throughout COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and chose to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she says. The concept for this project came—to some extent—from personal, originally difficult, move to LA and from the astrological phase, a popular event for enthusiasts. This represented an era that involved her learn significant insights, in her career and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Early Beginnings
Raised in New England, the star began creating and acting comedy while pursuing theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “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. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott seized control, taking the stage at open mics with her friend and uploading uproarious (and decidedly) unconventional comedy videos online. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted characters intensely fixated on pregnancy; a different one portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being trapped in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up appearing in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a religious event with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her path, she says, has been peers offering opportunities, instead of the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she repeats, continuing amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who had doubts about Sennott previously will likely be feeling foolish currently. As part of she labels a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she has created her dream vehicle. In 2019 she shared content titled about Los Angeles online, in which she mocked film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a series about city dwellers managing advantages of internet fame (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your friend being accused of being a drug-addled criminal, and potentially becoming a risky pariah). Some could tempting to produce a program about online fame that was overly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at the characters. The series steers clear of each, resulting in a depiction of affluent twentysomething life that’s frank about the mess and the glamour.
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 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
