The performer enters the online meeting and right away begins an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, seeming truly remorseful. She is only a bit late, she needs to justify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Fortunately, in this context, this is just what you want to encounter. Besides, it’s quite expected. Viewers who have seen her unapologetically queer and brash movie Bottoms—which Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and starred in with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—will already know that Sennott possesses a lot to discuss, be it about roles, sex, or the pros of forming a teen combat group. And, after watching the recent eight-part show I Love LA, viewers realize that the star has additional perspectives about the darker side of modern youth (Now in her thirties, she serves as an honorary member for this generation, on the cusp adept for straddling both generations).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and Sennott admits to being an admirer, naming the show in addition to the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as influences for her series, which details the struggles of a social media star Tallulah and close companion and fledgling representative Maia. Perhaps, the most significant presence on creative vision was reserved for the HBO series, the HBO sitcom about an up-and-coming celebrity navigating in a corrupt entertainment industry (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She discovered it throughout the pandemic, became “hooked”, and resolved to add a fresh perspective 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 inspiration for I Love LA came—partly—from firsthand, originally fractious, transition to LA and from the cosmic event, a much-talked-about occurrence for astrology heads. That period marked a time that included her learn major life lessons, professionally and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Humble Origins
Brought up in New England, Sennott started developing and showcasing humor while enrolled in acting at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “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. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, appearing at amateur nights with Edebiri and sharing hilarious (and decidedly) bizarre skits online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, followed several females obsessively drawn to having babies; a different one portrayed working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being caught in a thriller. By chance, she encountered Seligman through campus film circles and ended up appearing in her first film, Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a Jewish wake with hints of the intense thriller. The big theme of her journey, she says, has been peers offering opportunities, as opposed to the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, adding amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who questioned about her earlier will likely be regretting it today. In what she describes as a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she seems to have created an ideal role. In 2019 she uploaded a clip called about Los Angeles online, in which she lampooned film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a show about Angelenos managing benefits of online celebrity (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being suspected of being a intoxicated thief, and possibly becoming a risky outcast). It would be easy to create a show about online fame that was overly aspirational—or, more problematic, one that mocked at its subjects. I Love LA does neither, making for a representation of advantaged twentysomething living that’s candid about the grot and the appeal.
Balanced Perspective
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
