The star enters the video call and right away starts an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, seeming really regretful. Although she's only slightly late, she feels compelled to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, during an interview, that’s precisely what one hopes to encounter. Besides, it’s fairly expected. Those who have seen her fearlessly openly gay and outspoken project titled Bottoms—which she penned with Emma Seligman and starred in together with collaborator the talented actress—can be aware that Sennott holds plenty to say, ranging from on gender, relationships, or the pros of creating a high-school fight club. And, by the end her new eight-part program I Love LA, viewers realize that she carries additional thoughts about the darker side of modern youth (At 30, she is a bridge for this generation, straddling eras adept for connecting different age groups).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and the actress readily acknowledges an admirer, naming it in addition to the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as guides for I Love LA, which details the struggles of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also fledgling representative Maia. Perhaps, the biggest influence on the moodboard was reserved for the HBO series, that show focusing on an up-and-coming celebrity succeeding in a corrupt LA scene (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott began viewing it during lockdown, became “hooked”, and decided to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she notes. The idea for this project came—in part—from firsthand, at first difficult, move to LA and from the cosmic event, a frequently discussed occurrence for astrology heads. That period marked an era that saw her grasp significant insights, in her career and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she says. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Humble Origins
Growing up in New England, Sennott began creating and acting stand-up while enrolled in acting at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” 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.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She decided to act independently, appearing at open mics with Edebiri and sharing hilarious (and decidedly) weird comedy videos digitally. One, Baby Cult, depicted characters intensely fixated on having babies; a different one imagined being employed at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being trapped in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Emma through campus film circles and ended up featuring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a Jewish wake with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her career, she notes, has been contemporaries supporting her, as opposed to the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, adding amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who were skeptical about her then will surely be regretting it currently. Through she labels a “astonishingly complete” story, she has achieved the perfect project. A few years back she shared content called about Los Angeles on social media, in which she mocked movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about LA residents juggling the perks of digital stardom (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being suspected of being a intoxicated thief, and potentially becoming a risky outcast). It would be tempting to produce a program about online fame that was horribly aspirational—or, more problematic, one that belittled at those depicted. The series does neither, resulting in a depiction of advantaged young adult life that’s candid about the chaos and the glamour.
Balanced Perspective
“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
