The performer appears on the online meeting and immediately starts an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, sounding really apologetic. Despite being only a couple of minutes delayed, she needs to explain. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, in this context, that’s precisely what is ideal to encounter. Additionally, it’s pretty predictable. Viewers familiar with her fearlessly queer and outspoken movie titled Bottoms—that Sennott penned with Emma Seligman and appeared in with collaborator the talented actress—can already know that she has a lot to discuss, ranging from about identity, relationships, or the merits of creating a high-school fight club. And, by the end the new eight-part HBO series I Love LA, viewers realize that she carries further thoughts about the struggles of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott serves as an honorary member of the gang, straddling eras adept for straddling both generations).
Influences and Creative Vision
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and the actress is an admirer, naming the show together with the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for the project, which details the journey of an influencer Tallulah and close companion and fledgling representative portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the biggest presence on creative vision was reserved for the HBO series, that program about an emerging A-list actor navigating in an often-seedy LA scene (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She discovered it amid the pandemic, became “hooked”, and decided to add a fresh perspective 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 I Love LA emerged—in part—from firsthand, at first rocky, move to LA and from the astrological phase, a frequently discussed occurrence for followers. This represented an era that involved her learn major life lessons, in her career and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “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…”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott began developing and showcasing comedy while studying theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. 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 decided to act independently, performing at live shows with Edebiri and uploading hysterical (and very) weird skits on the internet. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women intensely obsessed with having babies; a different one imagined being employed at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being caught in a thriller. By chance, she met Seligman through the university’s film scene and ended up featuring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a religious event with shades of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her journey, she says, has been peers giving her a shot, instead of the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, continuing humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Rising Success
Those who questioned regarding Sennott previously will certainly be kicking themselves currently. Through she describes as a “wild, full-circle” development, she seems to have achieved the perfect project. In 2019 she posted content named “it’s LA” on social media, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a comedy about city dwellers managing benefits of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your associate being accused of being a drug-addled criminal, and perhaps becoming a risky outcast). Some could tempting to produce a series about digital influence that was horribly aspirational—or, more problematic, one that punched down at those depicted. The series does neither, making for a representation of affluent millennial existence that’s frank about the grot and the glamour.
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 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
