The star joins the video call and immediately launches into an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, sounding genuinely remorseful. She is only a couple of minutes delayed, she feels compelled to clarify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, for a writer, that’s precisely what you want to hear. Additionally, it’s quite expected. Viewers who have seen her fearlessly openly gay and unapologetically crass movie titled Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with Emma Seligman and appeared in alongside close companion the talented actress—would understand that Sennott has much to discuss, be it on identity, intimacy, or the pros of creating a teen combat group. And, once you finish the recent multi-episode show I Love LA, it is clear that she carries further insights on the darker side of Gen Z life (At 30, she serves as a relatable figure of the gang, straddling eras adept for connecting different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress readily acknowledges a fan, naming the show alongside the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as inspirations for I Love LA, which follows the struggles of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion and aspiring representative Maia. However, the biggest presence on the moodboard went to the popular sitcom, the HBO sitcom depicting an up-and-coming A-list actor navigating in a corrupt entertainment industry (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it amid the pandemic, became “captivated”, and decided to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she says. The idea for I Love LA came—to some extent—from her own, at first fractious, transition to Tinseltown and from the astrological phase, a popular phenomenon for enthusiasts. That period marked a time that involved her grasp some big insights, in her career and in private life. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she says. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Humble Origins
Raised in New England, Sennott commenced creating and acting comedy while studying performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She decided to act independently, performing at open mics with her friend and posting uproarious (and distinctly) bizarre online content online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, followed characters intensely fixated on having babies; a different one envisioned working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being trapped in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she met Emma through campus film circles and ended up starring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her career, she explains, has been peers supporting her, as opposed to the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, stating amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who questioned regarding Sennott previously will certainly be kicking themselves today. In what she labels a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she appears to achieved her dream vehicle. In 2019 she posted content named “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a series about city dwellers managing advantages of online celebrity (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being accused of being a intoxicated criminal, and possibly becoming a unreliable persona non grata). It would be simple to create a program about online fame that was extremely aspirational—or, worse, one that mocked at those depicted. I Love LA does neither, making for a representation of advantaged twentysomething life that’s honest about the grot and the appeal.
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 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
