The star joins the video call and right away launches into an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, sounding truly apologetic. She is only a couple of minutes behind, she feels compelled to justify. “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 exactly what you want to experience. Additionally, it’s quite unsurprising. Those who know her fearlessly queer and outspoken movie Bottoms—that she co-wrote with Emma Seligman and starred in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—would already know that she has a lot to discuss, whether about roles, sex, or the pros of creating a youth brawl society. Furthermore, after watching her new seasonal program I Love LA, it is clear that she holds additional insights on the darker side of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott serves as a relatable figure of the gang, straddling eras with a knack for straddling different age groups).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott admits to being an admirer, naming it alongside the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for the project, which tracks the struggles of a social media star Tallulah and close companion who is also fledgling agent portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the biggest influence on the moodboard was reserved for Entourage, that program depicting a rising A-list actor making his way in a corrupt LA scene (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She started watching it amid the pandemic, became “hooked”, and chose to create a new version on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she explains. The inspiration for the series emerged—to some extent—from firsthand, originally rocky, relocation to LA and from the astrological phase, a frequently discussed phenomenon for astrology heads. It was a phase that saw her understand major life lessons, work-wise and individually. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she says. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Humble Origins
Growing up in New England, the star began creating and acting stand-up while enrolled in acting at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” 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. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott seized control, taking the stage at open mics with Ayo and uploading hysterical (and very) bizarre online content online. One, Baby Cult, centered on a group of women obsessively fixated on having babies; another envisioned working at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being caught in a thriller. Interestingly, she encountered Seligman through campus film circles and ended up starring in her first film, Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her path, she explains, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, instead of the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, continuing amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who were skeptical regarding Sennott then will likely be feeling foolish currently. As part of she labels a “incredibly circular” development, she appears to created an ideal role. A few years back she uploaded a clip called about Los Angeles on social media, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a series about city dwellers managing advantages of internet fame (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your client being accused of being a drug-addled criminal, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). One might easy to create a series about digital influence that was horribly aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at the characters. The series does neither, resulting in a representation of affluent young adult life that’s honest about the grot and the glamour.
Balanced Perspective
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
