The performer appears on the video call and immediately begins an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, seeming truly regretful. Although she's only a couple of minutes behind, she needs to explain. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, during an interview, this is just what is ideal to experience. Besides, it’s fairly predictable. Those familiar with her boldly queer and unapologetically crass movie titled Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and starred in alongside collaborator The Bear’s standout—would be aware that she holds much to say, be it about roles, sex, or the appeal of starting a teen combat group. And, after watching the new seasonal show titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she carries further thoughts on the challenges of young adulthood (As a millennial, Sennott is a relatable figure of the gang, on the cusp with a knack for straddling different age groups).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott admits to being an admirer, referencing it together with the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as influences for the project, which follows the struggles of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also aspiring agent Sennott’s character. However, the most significant presence on creative vision was reserved for the popular sitcom, the show depicting a rising celebrity making his way in a corrupt LA scene (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott began viewing it throughout the pandemic, became “hooked”, and decided 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 concept for the series originated—in part—from personal, at first rocky, transition to Tinseltown and from the astrological phase, a popular occurrence for enthusiasts. This represented a phase that saw her understand some big truths, in her career and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Humble Origins
Brought up in the East Coast, the star began creating and acting stand-up while studying theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, appearing at live shows with Ayo and posting hysterical (and very) weird comedy videos on the internet. One, Baby Cult, followed characters obsessively drawn to pregnancy; a different one portrayed being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being stuck in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Seligman through the university’s film scene and ended up featuring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her career, she notes, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, as opposed to the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she repeats, stating humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Anyone who had doubts about Sennott previously will certainly be kicking themselves today. In what she calls a “astonishingly complete” story, she seems to have created an ideal role. A few years back she shared a video named “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she lampooned film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about Angelenos juggling benefits of online celebrity (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being suspected of being a drug-addled criminal, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). It would be easy to make a show about online fame that was extremely glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at the characters. I Love LA steers clear of each, resulting in a representation of advantaged millennial existence that’s candid about the grot and the appeal.
Balanced Perspective
“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
