🔗 Share this article Rachel Sennott exploring the hilarious comedy about the messy appeal of today's youth lifestyle The star enters the online meeting and at once launches into an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, sounding truly apologetic. Despite being only slightly late, she feels compelled to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, for a writer, that’s exactly what you want to hear. Besides, it’s quite unsurprising. Anyone who know the boldly openly gay and brash film Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with her creative partner and starred in alongside her friend Ayo Edebiri—can understand that Sennott possesses much to share, ranging from on gender, intimacy, or the pros of creating a high-school brawl society. And, by the end the new eight-part HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries even more insights about the challenges of young adulthood (As a millennial, Sennott is a bridge for this generation, a tale-end millennial with a knack for straddling different age groups). Inspirations and Artistic Direction The comparisons to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress is an admirer, referencing the show alongside Sex and the City, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as guides for her series, which details the journey of online personality Tallulah and ally who is also fledgling representative portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the largest presence on concept was reserved for Entourage, the show focusing on an emerging celebrity navigating in an often-seedy LA scene (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She started watching it amid lockdown, became “obsessed”, and decided to add a fresh perspective on it “for the girls and the gays”. “I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The concept for this project emerged—partly—from her own, initially rocky, relocation to Tinseltown and from her cosmic event, a much-talked-about phenomenon for enthusiasts. It was a phase that saw her grasp major truths, work-wise and in private life. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “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…” Early Beginnings Raised in the East Coast, Sennott began developing and showcasing comedy while enrolled in acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?” Sennott seized control, performing at amateur nights with Ayo and uploading uproarious (and distinctly) weird online content digitally. One, Baby Cult, depicted characters intensely drawn to pregnancy; another portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being stuck in a thriller. Interestingly, she encountered Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ended up featuring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the intense thriller. The central motif of her path, she says, has been peers giving her a shot, rather than established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, adding with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.” Manifesting Dreams Those who questioned regarding her previously will likely be regretting it today. In what she labels a “incredibly circular” development, she appears to manifested the perfect project. In 2019 she shared a video called “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a show about city dwellers managing the perks of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being accused of being a drug-addled stealer, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). Some could easy to create a series about online fame that was overly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that punched down at its subjects. This show avoids both, resulting in a representation of affluent young adult living that’s honest about the chaos and the appeal. Balanced Perspective “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