The star joins the digital interview and immediately starts an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, appearing really apologetic. Although she's only a couple of minutes behind, she feels compelled to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, during an interview, that’s just what you want to hear. Besides, it’s fairly predictable. Viewers who know the unapologetically queer and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—which she co-wrote with Emma Seligman and appeared in with close companion Ayo Edebiri—can understand that she possesses much to discuss, whether about gender, relationships, or the pros of starting a teen combat group. Plus, by the end the latest eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she carries additional perspectives about the darker side of modern youth (Now in her thirties, Sennott serves as a bridge for this generation, on the cusp adept for bridging different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and Sennott is a fan, naming the show alongside the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as guides for the project, which details the struggles of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also fledgling agent Sennott’s character. However, the largest influence on concept belonged to the popular sitcom, the program focusing on an emerging Hollywood star navigating in a gritty entertainment industry (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it during COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and decided to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she says. The idea for I Love LA originated—partly—from her own, initially difficult, relocation to LA and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about event for enthusiasts. It was an era that involved her grasp significant insights, professionally and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Starting Out
Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott began developing and showcasing humor while enrolled in theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she explains. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at amateur nights with her friend and uploading uproarious (and very) bizarre online content on the internet. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on several females intensely fixated on having babies; another envisioned working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being stuck in a horror film. Interestingly, she connected with Emma through NYU’s movie community and ultimately starring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her journey, she notes, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, as opposed to traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, stating with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who questioned about Sennott previously will certainly be regretting it now. As part of she describes as a “incredibly circular” development, she has achieved an ideal role. In 2019 she uploaded content titled on LA life on social media, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a series about Angelenos balancing advantages of internet fame (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being suspected of being a drug-addled criminal, and possibly becoming a unreliable persona non grata). It would be easy to produce a program about internet celebrity that was extremely idealized—or, worse, one that mocked at the characters. This show avoids both, creating a representation of advantaged millennial existence that’s candid about the mess and the appeal.
Empathetic Approach
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” she says. “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
