Rachel Sennott exploring the hilarious show about that grotty allure of today's youth life
The star enters the online meeting and right away starts an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, appearing truly remorseful. Despite being only a bit late, she feels compelled to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, for a writer, this is exactly what you want to experience. Additionally, it’s pretty unsurprising. Those familiar with the unapologetically queer and unapologetically crass movie Bottoms—which Sennott penned with Emma Seligman and featured in alongside her friend Ayo Edebiri—will be aware that she holds plenty to share, whether about identity, relationships, or the appeal of creating a high-school fight club. Plus, by the end the new eight-part program titled I Love LA, it is clear that she has additional perspectives about the challenges of modern youth (At 30, she represents a relatable figure of the gang, on the cusp skilled for connecting different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, referencing the show together with Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for her series, which details the struggles of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also aspiring representative Maia. However, the largest spot on creative vision belonged to the popular sitcom, that show focusing on an emerging celebrity succeeding in a corrupt Hollywood (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She discovered it amid lockdown, became “obsessed”, and chose to put her own twist 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 notes. The idea for this project originated—in part—from firsthand, initially fractious, transition to Los Angeles and from the saturn return, a much-talked-about occurrence for enthusiasts. That period marked an era that saw her learn significant life lessons, work-wise and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” 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…”
Humble Origins
Growing up in New England, Sennott started developing and showcasing humor while studying theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “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. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott seized control, performing at live shows with Edebiri and posting uproarious (and distinctly) weird comedy videos digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on a group of women fetishistically drawn to having babies; another portrayed working at the brand Hollister as akin to being caught in a thriller. By chance, she encountered Emma through campus film circles and eventually starring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a funeral gathering with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her career, she says, has been people her own age supporting her, instead of traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, adding amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Those who questioned about Sennott earlier will surely be feeling foolish now. In what she labels a “wild, full-circle” development, she has created the perfect project. In 2019 she posted a clip called on LA life on social media, in which she mocked film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about Angelenos juggling advantages of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your client being suspected of being a intoxicated criminal, and possibly becoming a unreliable persona non grata). Some could easy to make a show about digital influence that was overly idealized—or, more problematic, one that belittled at its subjects. I Love LA steers clear of each, resulting in a depiction of affluent twentysomething living that’s honest about the grot and the shine.
Empathetic Approach
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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