The star joins the digital interview and right away launches into an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, appearing genuinely remorseful. Despite being only a bit late, she feels compelled to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, for a writer, that’s exactly what is ideal to encounter. Additionally, it’s fairly predictable. Viewers familiar with the boldly LGBTQ+ and outspoken movie titled Bottoms—which she penned with Emma Seligman and starred in alongside close companion the talented actress—will understand that Sennott holds much to discuss, whether on identity, relationships, or the merits of forming a teen combat group. And, after watching her recent multi-episode show I Love LA, viewers realize that she carries additional thoughts about the struggles of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, she represents a relatable figure to younger audiences, on the cusp with a knack for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott admits to being a fan, referencing the show alongside Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as guides for I Love LA, which follows the journey of a social media star Tallulah and close companion who is also aspiring talent manager portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the biggest presence on creative vision belonged to the HBO series, that program about an up-and-coming A-list actor succeeding in a gritty Hollywood (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it amid COVID-19, became “hooked”, and chose 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 idea for the series emerged—to some extent—from personal, at first fractious, move to Los Angeles and from the saturn return, a much-talked-about occurrence for astrology heads. It was a phase that saw her grasp major truths, in her career and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Starting Out
Brought up in New England, the star commenced creating and acting comedy while pursuing performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “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. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She decided to act independently, appearing at amateur nights with Ayo and sharing uproarious (and distinctly) unconventional skits on the internet. One, Baby Cult, depicted characters obsessively drawn to motherhood; a different one portrayed working at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being trapped in a horror film. By chance, she met Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ended up starring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a funeral gathering with hints of the intense thriller. The big theme of her path, she notes, has been contemporaries supporting her, instead of traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she repeats, stating humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who had doubts regarding her previously will certainly be regretting it currently. Through she calls a “wild, full-circle” story, she appears to manifested the perfect project. Previously she uploaded a video called about Los Angeles on social media, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a series about LA residents juggling the perks of internet fame (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being accused of being a drug-addled thief, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). Some could easy to create a show about online fame that was overly idealized—or, worse, one that mocked at its subjects. I Love LA does neither, making for a portrait of advantaged twentysomething life that’s frank about the chaos and the shine.
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
