🔗 Share this article Rachel Sennott exploring the uproarious series about the grotty allure of younger generation life The star enters the digital interview and at once launches into an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, appearing really apologetic. She is only a couple of minutes late, she feels compelled to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, in this context, this is precisely what one hopes to encounter. Additionally, it’s quite expected. Viewers who have seen the fearlessly queer and outspoken project Bottoms—that Sennott penned with her creative partner and appeared in alongside collaborator Ayo Edebiri—would be aware that she has a lot to discuss, be it on gender, sex, or the appeal of forming a youth fight club. Plus, by the end the new seasonal HBO series I Love LA, viewers realize that the star has additional insights regarding the challenges of young adulthood (As a millennial, Sennott represents an honorary member of the gang, on the cusp adept for straddling both generations). Inspirations and Storytelling Approach The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott admits to being an admirer, naming the show in addition to Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as influences for her series, which details the journey of online personality Tallulah and her friend who is also aspiring agent portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the most significant presence on creative vision was reserved for the HBO series, that show focusing on an up-and-coming Hollywood star navigating in a corrupt LA scene (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott started watching it amid the pandemic, became “hooked”, and chose to add a fresh perspective on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”. “I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she notes. The inspiration for I Love LA came—partly—from firsthand, at first rocky, relocation to LA and from her cosmic event, a popular phenomenon for followers. It was a time that saw her learn significant insights, professionally 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. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…” Humble Origins Raised in Connecticut, Sennott started creating and acting comedy while pursuing acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “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 seized control, appearing at amateur nights with Ayo and posting hilarious (and decidedly) unconventional online content online. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted a group of women intensely obsessed with pregnancy; another portrayed working at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being stuck in a horror film. By chance, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up starring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a funeral gathering with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her path, she explains, has been peers supporting her, rather than the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, continuing with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.” Rising Success Individuals who had doubts regarding her previously will certainly be regretting it today. As part of she describes as a “incredibly circular” story, she seems to have manifested the perfect project. In 2019 she posted a video named on LA life on social media, in which she lampooned movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a series about city dwellers juggling benefits of internet fame (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being accused of being a drug-addled thief, and possibly becoming a unreliable persona non grata). One might easy to produce a program about digital influence that was horribly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that belittled at its subjects. I Love LA avoids both, resulting in a depiction of privileged young adult existence that’s frank about the mess and the shine. Empathetic Approach “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