The star joins the video call and immediately begins an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, appearing really apologetic. She is only a couple of minutes behind, she needs to explain. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, in this context, that’s exactly what you want to encounter. Besides, it’s pretty unsurprising. Those familiar with the unapologetically openly gay and unapologetically crass movie Bottoms—which she penned with Emma Seligman and appeared in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—can already know that Sennott holds much to say, whether about gender, sex, or the pros of forming a youth combat group. Plus, once you finish her new multi-episode show titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she holds further insights about the struggles of Gen Z life (At 30, she serves as a bridge for this generation, on the cusp adept for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and the actress readily acknowledges enthusiastic, referencing the show together with Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as inspirations for I Love LA, which follows the journey of a social media star Tallulah and her friend and aspiring representative Maia. Perhaps, the largest presence on the moodboard went to Entourage, the show focusing on an emerging Hollywood star making his way in a corrupt entertainment industry (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it during COVID-19, became “captivated”, and resolved 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 says. The idea for this project originated—partly—from personal, originally rocky, move to Tinseltown and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about phenomenon for followers. It was a phase that saw her grasp some big insights, work-wise and individually. “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…”
Starting Out
Growing up in New England, Sennott started developing and showcasing comedy while enrolled in performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She took matters into her own hands, performing at amateur nights with Edebiri and sharing hysterical (and distinctly) bizarre comedy videos digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on characters fetishistically fixated on having babies; another envisioned being employed at the brand Hollister as similar to being caught in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she met Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ultimately featuring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a Jewish wake with hints of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her career, she explains, has been people her own age giving her a shot, rather than established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she repeats, continuing with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Anyone who had doubts regarding Sennott then will certainly be kicking themselves now. As part of she calls a “wild, full-circle” development, she has created the perfect project. Previously she shared a video titled on LA life on social media, in which she mocked film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a comedy about LA residents balancing benefits of online celebrity (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being labeled as being a intoxicated stealer, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). One might tempting to produce a show about internet celebrity that was overly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that belittled at the characters. I Love LA does neither, making for a representation of affluent young adult existence that’s frank about the chaos and the glamour.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
