The performer joins the digital interview and immediately launches into an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, seeming genuinely apologetic. She is only slightly late, she feels compelled to justify. “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, during an interview, that’s exactly what one hopes to encounter. Besides, it’s quite unsurprising. Those familiar with the fearlessly LGBTQ+ and brash movie titled Bottoms—which Sennott penned with the director and featured in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—will understand that she holds plenty to discuss, whether about roles, intimacy, or the pros of creating a high-school fight club. And, by the end the new eight-part program I Love LA, it is clear that she carries additional insights regarding the darker side of Gen Z life (As a millennial, Sennott is an honorary member for this generation, a tale-end millennial skilled for connecting both generations).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott admits to being a fan, citing it alongside Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as influences for the project, which tracks the journey of a social media star Tallulah and close companion and aspiring agent portrayed by Sennott. However, the biggest presence on the moodboard belonged to Entourage, the show about an emerging A-list actor succeeding in a corrupt entertainment industry (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it during lockdown, became “hooked”, and chose to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she notes. The concept for I Love LA came—partly—from firsthand, at first difficult, transition to LA and from her saturn return, a much-talked-about occurrence for followers. That period marked an era that saw her learn significant truths, in her career and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Starting Out
Growing up in Connecticut, the star commenced writing and performing stand-up while studying performance at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. 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 took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at amateur nights with Edebiri and posting hysterical (and decidedly) weird comedy videos on the internet. One, Baby Cult, depicted several females obsessively drawn to pregnancy; another envisioned being employed at the brand Hollister as like being trapped in a scary movie. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually starring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a funeral gathering with hints of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her path, she notes, has been people her own age offering opportunities, rather than the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, adding humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who had doubts regarding Sennott earlier will surely be regretting it today. As part of she describes as a “incredibly circular” development, she has manifested her dream vehicle. In 2019 she uploaded a video called on LA life on the internet, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a comedy about LA residents balancing advantages of digital stardom (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being labeled as being a drug-addled stealer, and perhaps becoming a unreliable persona non grata). It would be easy to produce a program about internet celebrity that was horribly aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at those depicted. The series does neither, making for a depiction of advantaged young adult life that’s candid about the mess and the shine.
Empathetic Approach
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
