The performer appears on the digital interview and immediately starts an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, seeming really regretful. Although she's only a couple of minutes behind, she wants to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, during an interview, that’s precisely what is ideal to hear. Moreover, it’s pretty unsurprising. Anyone who have seen her boldly openly gay and outspoken film Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with her creative partner and starred in with close companion Ayo Edebiri—can already know that Sennott has much to say, be it about roles, sex, or the pros of creating a high-school fight club. Plus, after watching her recent multi-episode program I Love LA, viewers realize that she has even more insights on the darker side of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, she represents an honorary member for this generation, straddling eras adept for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and Sennott is a fan, referencing the show in addition to the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as guides for I Love LA, which details the struggles of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also new talent manager Maia. Notably, the largest spot on the moodboard belonged to Entourage, that HBO sitcom focusing on an emerging celebrity making his way in a gritty Hollywood (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She discovered it amid the pandemic, became “hooked”, and chose to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she says. The concept for I Love LA emerged—partly—from personal, initially difficult, move to Tinseltown and from the cosmic event, a popular phenomenon for followers. It was an era that involved her grasp significant insights, in her career and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” 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…”
Starting Out
Raised in Connecticut, the star commenced creating and acting comedy while studying acting at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she states. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, appearing at amateur nights with Ayo and uploading hysterical (and distinctly) weird skits on the internet. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women intensely fixated on motherhood; a different one imagined working at the brand Hollister as like being stuck in a horror film. Interestingly, she met Seligman through the university’s film scene and eventually featuring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a religious event with echoes of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her journey, she notes, has been peers supporting her, rather than traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, stating humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who were skeptical regarding her earlier will certainly be feeling foolish now. Through she calls a “wild, full-circle” story, she has created an ideal role. A few years back she posted a video called about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a show about city dwellers managing advantages of digital stardom (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your client being suspected of being a substance-abusing thief, and perhaps becoming a unreliable pariah). One might simple to create a series about internet celebrity that was extremely idealized—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at those depicted. I Love LA avoids both, resulting in a portrait of privileged millennial existence that’s honest about the grot and the shine.
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 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
