The star enters the digital interview and at once launches into an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, sounding really apologetic. Despite being only a couple of minutes late, she wants to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, for a writer, this is precisely what is ideal to experience. Moreover, it’s pretty predictable. Viewers who know her unapologetically LGBTQ+ and brash movie titled Bottoms—which she collaborated on with the director and appeared in together with her friend The Bear’s standout—can understand that Sennott has much to share, whether on identity, sex, or the merits of starting a youth combat group. Furthermore, by the end the recent eight-part HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries even more insights on the struggles of young adulthood (At 30, she is an honorary member for this generation, straddling eras skilled for bridging both generations).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and Sennott is an admirer, naming the show alongside Sex and the City, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for her series, which details the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also aspiring representative Sennott’s character. However, the biggest influence on concept belonged to the HBO series, the show depicting an emerging A-list actor succeeding in a gritty LA scene (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it amid COVID-19, became “hooked”, and chose to add a fresh perspective 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 explains. The idea for the series came—in part—from personal, originally difficult, transition to LA and from the astrological phase, a frequently discussed occurrence for followers. It was a phase that involved her learn some big truths, in her career and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “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 the East Coast, the star began developing and showcasing comedy while studying acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “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. 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.”
She took matters into her own hands, performing at open mics with Edebiri and uploading hilarious (and decidedly) unconventional comedy videos digitally. One, Baby Cult, followed a group of women intensely fixated on having babies; a different one envisioned working at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being stuck in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she met Seligman through campus film circles and ended up appearing in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her career, she notes, has been people her own age giving her a shot, rather than traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, stating amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who were skeptical regarding Sennott earlier will certainly be regretting it currently. As part of she labels a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she has created the perfect project. Previously she posted a video called on LA life online, in which she parodied film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about city dwellers balancing advantages of digital stardom (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your friend being accused of being a drug-addled stealer, and potentially becoming a unreliable outcast). Some could tempting to create a series about online fame that was horribly glamorous—or, worse, one that belittled at its subjects. I Love LA does neither, making for a depiction of advantaged young adult living that’s honest about the grot and the glamour.
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 observes. “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
