The performer appears on the digital interview and right away starts an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, seeming genuinely apologetic. She is only slightly late, she wants to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, in this context, that’s precisely what is ideal to experience. Besides, it’s pretty expected. Those who know the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and outspoken film titled Bottoms—which Sennott collaborated on with her creative partner and featured in with close companion Ayo Edebiri—will be aware that Sennott has a lot to say, be it about roles, relationships, or the merits of starting a high-school fight club. And, by the end the new multi-episode program I Love LA, viewers realize that she has further perspectives on the struggles of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott serves as a bridge of the gang, on the cusp adept for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and the actress is a fan, naming the show alongside the HBO hit, Insecure and the innovative program as influences for her series, which follows the travails of a social media star Tallulah and her friend who is also fledgling agent portrayed by Sennott. However, the most significant presence on creative vision was reserved for the popular sitcom, the show depicting a rising Hollywood star navigating in an often-seedy entertainment industry (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She discovered it throughout the pandemic, became “captivated”, and resolved to add a fresh perspective on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she notes. The idea for the series came—partly—from firsthand, originally rocky, move to Los Angeles and from the cosmic event, a frequently discussed phenomenon for astrology heads. It was a phase that involved her learn significant truths, work-wise and in private life. “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. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Humble Origins
Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott commenced creating and acting comedy while pursuing performance at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott decided to act independently, performing at live shows with Edebiri and sharing hilarious (and very) unconventional comedy videos online. One, titled Baby Cult, followed characters obsessively drawn to having babies; another envisioned being employed at the brand Hollister as akin to being caught in a horror film. By chance, she encountered Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ultimately appearing in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a Jewish wake with hints of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her journey, she says, has been people her own age giving her a shot, rather than established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, adding humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who were skeptical about Sennott previously will likely be kicking themselves currently. As part of she describes as a “astonishingly complete” story, she appears to manifested the perfect project. In 2019 she uploaded a video titled about Los Angeles online, in which she mocked movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a series about Angelenos managing advantages of online celebrity (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your client being suspected of being a drug-addled stealer, and possibly becoming a unreliable persona non grata). It would be easy to produce a program about online fame that was extremely glamorous—or, more problematic, one that belittled at those depicted. This show avoids both, resulting in a portrait of affluent young adult living that’s frank about the mess and the glamour.
Nuanced Portrayal
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” 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
