The performer enters the digital interview and at once launches into an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, sounding truly apologetic. She is only a bit behind, she wants to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, during an interview, this is exactly what is ideal to experience. Additionally, it’s pretty expected. Anyone who know the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and outspoken film titled Bottoms—which she penned with Emma Seligman and appeared in alongside collaborator The Bear’s standout—will already know that she holds much to discuss, whether on gender, intimacy, or the appeal of starting a teen fight club. Furthermore, once you finish her new eight-part program titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries additional perspectives about the struggles of young adulthood (As a millennial, Sennott serves as an honorary member for this generation, straddling eras adept for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, referencing the show in addition to Sex and the City, Insecure and Atlanta as inspirations for I Love LA, which tracks the journey of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also fledgling agent portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the largest influence on creative vision belonged to Entourage, the HBO sitcom depicting an up-and-coming A-list actor making his way in a corrupt Hollywood (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She started watching it amid the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and decided to put her own twist on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she notes. The inspiration for this project originated—in part—from her own, at first difficult, transition to Tinseltown and from the astrological phase, a frequently discussed occurrence for enthusiasts. This represented a time that saw her grasp significant truths, work-wise and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Humble Origins
Raised in Connecticut, the star started writing and performing stand-up while studying theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” 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. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She seized control, performing at live shows with Edebiri and posting hilarious (and decidedly) bizarre comedy videos digitally. One, Baby Cult, followed characters intensely obsessed with motherhood; another imagined being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being caught in a horror film. By chance, she encountered Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ended up starring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a Jewish wake with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her journey, she notes, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, as opposed to the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, continuing amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who were skeptical about her previously will surely be kicking themselves today. As part of she calls a “astonishingly complete” development, she seems to have created the perfect project. A few years back she uploaded content titled “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she parodied movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a series about LA residents managing the perks of internet fame (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being accused of being a drug-addled stealer, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). One might tempting to produce a show about online fame that was horribly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at those depicted. I Love LA does neither, making for a depiction of affluent twentysomething existence that’s honest about the chaos and the appeal.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
