The performer joins the online meeting and immediately starts an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, appearing truly apologetic. She is only a bit delayed, she feels compelled 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, in this context, this is exactly what you want to experience. Moreover, it’s pretty expected. Viewers familiar with her fearlessly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass project titled Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with her creative partner and featured in alongside her friend Ayo Edebiri—will already know that Sennott holds much to share, be it on roles, sex, or the appeal of forming a high-school brawl society. And, once you finish her recent eight-part show I Love LA, viewers realize that the star has further thoughts on the struggles of modern youth (At 30, Sennott is a relatable figure of the gang, a tale-end millennial with a knack for straddling both generations).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and Sennott admits to being a fan, citing it together with the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as influences for I Love LA, which follows the struggles of an influencer Tallulah and ally who is also fledgling talent manager Maia. Perhaps, the biggest influence on the moodboard was reserved for Entourage, that HBO sitcom focusing on an up-and-coming Hollywood star making his way in a corrupt Hollywood (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott started watching it throughout the pandemic, became “obsessed”, 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 explains. The concept for the series emerged—partly—from personal, initially rocky, transition to Tinseltown and from her astrological phase, a frequently discussed occurrence for astrology heads. That period marked a time that saw her understand some big life lessons, work-wise and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Starting Out
Raised in New England, Sennott started writing and performing humor while enrolled in performance at NYU’s Tisch. “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 Ayo and posting hilarious (and very) bizarre comedy videos digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted characters obsessively fixated on pregnancy; a different one imagined being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being trapped in a thriller. By chance, she connected with Seligman through the university’s film scene and ended up starring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her career, she explains, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, instead of established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, stating amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Individuals who were skeptical regarding her previously will surely be feeling foolish now. As part of she describes as a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she appears to created the perfect project. A few years back she shared a clip named about Los Angeles on social media, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a show about LA residents managing the perks of digital stardom (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being labeled as being a substance-abusing criminal, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). It would be tempting to create a show about internet celebrity that was overly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at the characters. The series steers clear of each, resulting in a representation of privileged millennial life that’s candid about the grot and the shine.
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
