The performer joins the digital interview and immediately starts an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, appearing really remorseful. Despite being only a bit delayed, she wants to explain. “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!” Luckily, during an interview, this is exactly what you want to encounter. Besides, it’s pretty expected. Viewers who have seen the fearlessly LGBTQ+ and outspoken movie Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and featured in with her friend The Bear’s standout—will understand that she has much to share, whether on roles, sex, or the appeal of starting a high-school combat group. Plus, after watching her recent multi-episode show I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds further insights regarding the challenges of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, she serves as an honorary member for this generation, on the cusp with a knack for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and Sennott readily acknowledges enthusiastic, referencing it in addition to Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as inspirations for I Love LA, which details the struggles of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and new representative portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the biggest presence on the moodboard went to Entourage, the show depicting a rising celebrity succeeding in an often-seedy entertainment industry (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She started watching it throughout the pandemic, became “captivated”, and chose 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 I Love LA came—to some extent—from personal, originally fractious, move to Tinseltown and from the cosmic event, a frequently discussed phenomenon for astrology heads. It was a phase that included her learn significant insights, work-wise and personally. “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 resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Early Beginnings
Raised in New England, the star began developing and showcasing comedy while pursuing theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “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.”
Sennott seized control, taking the stage at live shows with her friend and uploading hysterical (and distinctly) weird comedy videos digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted a group of women fetishistically fixated on pregnancy; another imagined being employed at the brand Hollister as akin to being trapped in a horror film. By chance, she connected with Seligman through campus film circles and eventually featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her career, she says, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, rather than the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, stating amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who were skeptical regarding her previously will surely be feeling foolish currently. As part of she labels a “incredibly circular” story, she seems to have created an ideal role. In 2019 she shared content titled “it’s LA” online, in which she lampooned film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a show about Angelenos juggling the perks of online celebrity (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being labeled as being a intoxicated criminal, and potentially becoming a unreliable outcast). One might tempting to make a series about internet celebrity that was horribly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that belittled at those depicted. The series steers clear of each, making for a portrait of privileged young adult existence that’s frank about the grot and the shine.
Empathetic Approach
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” 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
