The star enters the digital interview and immediately launches into an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, appearing truly apologetic. Although she's only slightly behind, she feels compelled to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, in this context, that’s just what you want to encounter. Besides, it’s pretty expected. Anyone who have seen her unapologetically queer and outspoken movie titled Bottoms—which Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and starred in together with her friend the talented actress—will understand that she holds a lot to share, whether on identity, sex, or the pros of starting a youth fight club. And, by the end the new eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star holds even more thoughts about the darker side of modern youth (Now in her thirties, she is a bridge for this generation, on the cusp with a knack for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott is an admirer, citing it alongside the classic series, Insecure and Atlanta as guides for the project, which details the travails of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also aspiring talent manager portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the largest influence on creative vision was reserved for the HBO series, that HBO sitcom depicting a rising celebrity making his way in a gritty entertainment industry (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She began viewing it throughout lockdown, became “obsessed”, and chose 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 I Love LA originated—to some extent—from firsthand, originally difficult, transition to Tinseltown and from her astrological phase, a popular phenomenon for enthusiasts. It was a time that involved her grasp some big insights, in her career and in private life. “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 …”
Humble Origins
Brought up in the East Coast, the star started creating and acting stand-up while studying acting at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” 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 decided to act independently, taking the stage at open mics with Ayo and sharing hysterical (and decidedly) bizarre online content digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, followed characters obsessively obsessed with motherhood; a different one imagined working at the brand Hollister as like being caught in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ultimately appearing in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a religious event with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her journey, she says, has been peers giving her a shot, as opposed to the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, stating humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Rising Success
Anyone who had doubts about her previously will certainly be regretting it today. In what she describes as a “astonishingly complete” story, she appears to created the perfect project. A few years back she posted content named on LA life on the internet, in which she parodied film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about LA residents balancing the perks of digital stardom (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your associate being suspected of being a drug-addled thief, and possibly becoming a risky persona non grata). One might simple to make a show about internet celebrity that was extremely aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at those depicted. The series does neither, resulting in a representation of affluent twentysomething life that’s honest about the grot and the glamour.
Empathetic Approach
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” she says. “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
