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Rachel Sennott joins the digital interview and right away begins an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, sounding really regretful. She is only a couple of minutes behind, she needs to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, during an interview, this is just what is ideal to experience. Moreover, it’s quite predictable. Those familiar with the unapologetically openly gay and brash movie titled Bottoms—which Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and appeared in with close companion Ayo Edebiri—can understand that she possesses plenty to share, ranging from on roles, intimacy, or the appeal of starting a youth combat group. Furthermore, after watching her latest seasonal program I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries even more insights about the struggles of Gen Z life (As a millennial, Sennott serves as an honorary member of the gang, a tale-end millennial adept for connecting millennials and Gen Z).

Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction

Parallels to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and the actress readily acknowledges a fan, citing it alongside the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as influences for the project, which details the travails of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and fledgling representative Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the biggest influence on concept was reserved for the popular sitcom, that HBO sitcom about a rising Hollywood star navigating in an often-seedy LA scene (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott began viewing it during lockdown, became “hooked”, and decided to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.

“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The concept for this project came—in part—from her own, at first rocky, transition to Los Angeles and from the astrological phase, a frequently discussed phenomenon for followers. It was a phase that involved her learn some big life lessons, professionally and individually. “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 was almost like these biblical tests …”

Early Beginnings

Brought up in New England, the star started developing and showcasing humor while studying performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. 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.”

She took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at amateur nights with Ayo and uploading hysterical (and decidedly) weird online content online. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted characters obsessively obsessed with pregnancy; another portrayed working at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being stuck in a scary movie. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and ended up featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a funeral gathering with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her career, she notes, has been contemporaries supporting her, as opposed to the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, stating with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Manifesting Dreams

Individuals who were skeptical regarding her earlier will certainly be feeling foolish currently. In what she labels a “astonishingly complete” story, she appears to manifested her dream vehicle. In 2019 she posted a video called about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she mocked film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a comedy about Angelenos juggling benefits of internet fame (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being suspected of being a intoxicated thief, and potentially becoming a unreliable outcast). It would be simple to make a series about internet celebrity that was horribly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at its subjects. I Love LA avoids both, making for a representation of affluent millennial living that’s candid about the grot and the appeal.

Empathetic Approach

“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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