The star enters the online meeting and at once starts an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, appearing truly remorseful. Although she's only a couple of minutes delayed, she wants to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, for a writer, that’s precisely what one hopes to experience. Moreover, it’s pretty expected. Anyone familiar with the unapologetically openly gay and outspoken film titled Bottoms—which she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and featured in with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—can be aware that Sennott has a lot to discuss, be it on gender, sex, or the appeal of forming a teen fight club. Plus, by the end the latest eight-part show I Love LA, it is clear that the star has additional perspectives on the struggles of modern youth (Now in her thirties, Sennott is a relatable figure of the gang, straddling eras with a knack for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and the actress readily acknowledges a fan, naming it together with the classic series, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for the project, which tracks the travails of a social media star Tallulah and ally who is also new agent Maia. Notably, the biggest presence on concept went to Entourage, that HBO sitcom focusing on an emerging A-list actor navigating in an often-seedy Hollywood (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She discovered it during lockdown, became “hooked”, and decided 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 idea for the series came—in part—from personal, initially difficult, relocation to Tinseltown and from the astrological phase, a popular event for enthusiasts. This represented an era that saw her learn some big truths, work-wise 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. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Humble Origins
Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott commenced creating and acting stand-up while studying performance at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She took matters into her own hands, appearing at live shows with her friend and posting hysterical (and decidedly) weird comedy videos online. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted a group of women obsessively fixated on pregnancy; another portrayed working at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being trapped in a horror film. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up starring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a religious event with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her journey, she says, has been peers supporting her, instead of the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she confirms, continuing amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Individuals who questioned regarding Sennott then will certainly be feeling foolish today. In what she labels a “incredibly circular” development, she seems to have created the perfect project. Previously she uploaded a clip named “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a comedy about LA residents managing benefits of internet fame (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your friend being accused of being a substance-abusing stealer, and perhaps becoming a unreliable outcast). One might tempting to produce a program about online fame that was overly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at its subjects. This show does neither, making for a depiction of affluent millennial living that’s honest about the mess and the glamour.
Empathetic Approach
“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
