The star appears on the online meeting and immediately launches into an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, seeming really apologetic. Despite being only a bit behind, she wants to justify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, during an interview, this is exactly what is ideal to encounter. Moreover, it’s quite predictable. Anyone familiar with the unapologetically openly gay and unapologetically crass project Bottoms—which she penned with her creative partner and featured in together with collaborator The Bear’s standout—will already know that Sennott has a lot to share, whether on identity, sex, or the pros of starting a teen fight club. And, by the end the recent seasonal program titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star has even more insights about the darker side of Gen Z life (As a millennial, she is a relatable figure to younger audiences, on the cusp skilled for straddling different age groups).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and Sennott admits to being a fan, citing it together with Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as influences for the project, which tracks the journey of an influencer Tallulah and close companion who is also fledgling agent Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the largest influence on creative vision belonged to the popular sitcom, that program depicting a rising celebrity navigating in a gritty Hollywood (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott started watching it amid COVID-19, became “hooked”, and resolved to put her own twist on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she explains. The concept for this project originated—in part—from firsthand, initially rocky, move to LA and from the astrological phase, a much-talked-about occurrence for astrology heads. That period marked a time that included her grasp some big truths, professionally and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Early Beginnings
Raised in Connecticut, Sennott commenced creating and acting stand-up while pursuing performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “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?”
Sennott decided to act independently, performing at live shows with Edebiri and uploading uproarious (and very) weird skits on the internet. One, Baby Cult, centered on characters fetishistically drawn to motherhood; a different one envisioned being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being caught in a horror film. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually starring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a religious event with echoes of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her career, she says, has been people her own age supporting her, instead of traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, adding amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who were skeptical regarding her earlier will certainly be kicking themselves now. In what she describes as a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she seems to have manifested her dream vehicle. A few years back she posted a clip called on LA life online, in which she parodied film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a show about city dwellers managing the perks of internet fame (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being labeled as being a drug-addled stealer, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). It would be simple to produce a show about digital influence that was overly glamorous—or, worse, one that punched down at its subjects. I Love LA avoids both, making for a portrait of affluent twentysomething existence that’s honest about the chaos and the glamour.
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
