The performer enters the digital interview and immediately launches into an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, sounding truly apologetic. She is only a bit delayed, she needs to clarify. “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, this is exactly what one hopes to hear. Besides, it’s quite expected. Anyone who know the unapologetically queer and unapologetically crass movie titled Bottoms—which she co-wrote with the director and starred in alongside collaborator Ayo Edebiri—would be aware that she has plenty to say, be it on identity, sex, or the merits of forming a high-school fight club. Furthermore, after watching the new seasonal show titled I Love LA, it is clear that she carries even more insights about the struggles of modern youth (At 30, Sennott serves as a relatable figure of the gang, a tale-end millennial skilled for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and Sennott is enthusiastic, naming the show together with the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as influences for the project, which follows the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and new agent Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the biggest influence on creative vision was reserved for the popular sitcom, the program depicting an emerging A-list actor succeeding in a gritty LA scene (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it amid COVID-19, became “captivated”, and chose to add a fresh perspective 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 inspiration for I Love LA came—to some extent—from her own, initially fractious, relocation to LA and from the saturn return, a popular phenomenon for followers. That period marked a time that saw her grasp some big truths, work-wise and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “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
Brought up in the East Coast, the star started creating and acting comedy while pursuing acting at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” 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. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
She seized control, performing at amateur nights with her friend and uploading uproarious (and very) weird comedy videos digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted a group of women obsessively obsessed with motherhood; another portrayed working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being stuck in a scary movie. By chance, she connected with Emma through campus film circles and ended up starring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a Jewish wake with hints of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her career, she says, has been peers giving her a shot, as opposed to traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she repeats, adding humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who had doubts about Sennott previously will likely be kicking themselves today. In what she describes as a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she seems to have achieved her dream vehicle. Previously she shared a clip called about Los Angeles on social media, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about LA residents juggling advantages of digital stardom (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your client being labeled as being a intoxicated thief, and possibly becoming a risky outcast). One might tempting to produce a program about digital influence that was overly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at those depicted. I Love LA steers clear of each, creating a representation of privileged millennial existence that’s honest about the chaos 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 comments. “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
