In the first few minutes of “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” Rachel Sennott lets out a full-throated scream. There will be plenty more before the closing credits of A24’s recent slasher movie, but this particular shriek has nothing to do with horror: Sennott’s character, Alice, is greeting guests at a house party, and she’s ready for a good time. Directed by Halina Reijn, “Bodies” is an ensemble whodunit set in a McMansion in the woods that skewers Zoomer culture’s obsession with policing language even as its characters commit all manner of criminal acts. Sennott’s ability to inject an astonishing range of meaning into Alice’s various cries and yowls — as well as her litany of expletives and “oh my Gods” — steals the show.
Although “Bodies” is a rowdy caricature of social media natives, the 26-year-old tends to anchor her craft in the unfiltered reality of her off-line experiences. “I honestly think I’ll never be as good at stand-up as I was when I went through a horrible breakup,” says the Connecticut-born comedian and actor from her home in Los Angeles. “I was huffing poppers — for some reason, my breakup drug of choice — and I’d show up at the comedy show fresh from crying. I was like, ‘I know exactly what is funny and sad to me about this.’”
Sennott, who studied acting at New York University, started out performing at open mic nights and in student films, one of which, a short named “Shiva Baby,” written and directed in 2018 by her friend Emma Seligman, became a feature two years later. Recently, the duo teamed up again to co-write “Bottoms,” a high school sex comedy starring Sennott, Kaia Gerber and Marshawn Lynch that Sennott describes as “two girls in a classic American football town who start a fight club under the guise of female empowerment, but it’s actually so they can have sex with cheerleaders.”
When “Bottoms” wrapped earlier this year, Sennott immediately started shooting “The Idol,” an upcoming HBO series about a self-help guru set against the backdrop of the music industry, by Abel Tesfaye (professionally known as the Weeknd) and Sam Levinson, the “Euphoria” creator, and featuring Tesfaye, Lily-Rose Depp and Troye Sivan. Though her career is taking her further away from comedy clubs, Sennott’s ambition as an entertainer remains the same. “I literally want people to have the best time of their lives,” she says. “I want everyone to have a wine and then go to the movies and then go out with their friends.”
Hair: Phoebe Seligman using Oribe at Art Department. Makeup: Molly Greenwald at A-Frame Agency. Production: Dela Revolución. Photo assistants: Angel Castro, Shuieb Farah. Stylist’s assistant: Priscilla Langdon
