The star enters the digital interview and at once begins an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, sounding really regretful. She is only slightly delayed, she wants to justify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, during an interview, this is just what you want to hear. Moreover, it’s quite unsurprising. Those who know the fearlessly LGBTQ+ and outspoken movie titled Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and featured in alongside collaborator Ayo Edebiri—can already know that she possesses much to share, be it on identity, intimacy, or the merits of starting a teen fight club. Plus, after watching her latest seasonal HBO series titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she has even more insights about the challenges of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott is a bridge of the gang, straddling eras skilled for bridging both generations).
Influences and Artistic Direction
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, naming the show in addition to Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as influences for the project, which tracks the travails of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and aspiring talent manager Maia. Notably, the biggest spot on creative vision went to Entourage, the HBO sitcom focusing on an emerging A-list actor making his way in an often-seedy entertainment industry (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it amid COVID-19, became “captivated”, and resolved to put her own twist on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she notes. The inspiration for I Love LA emerged—in part—from firsthand, initially fractious, move to LA and from the cosmic event, a popular phenomenon for enthusiasts. That period marked a time that involved her understand significant life lessons, in her career and in private life. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “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…”
Starting Out
Growing up in New England, the star started creating and acting stand-up while enrolled in performance at a prestigious arts school. “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. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She seized control, appearing at amateur nights with Ayo and posting uproarious (and very) weird skits on the internet. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on characters intensely fixated on motherhood; another imagined working at the brand Hollister as like being caught in a scary movie. Interestingly, she connected with Seligman through campus film circles and eventually appearing in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a Jewish wake with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her career, she notes, has been contemporaries supporting her, as opposed to the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, continuing with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who questioned regarding her previously will likely be regretting it today. Through she calls a “astonishingly complete” story, she has created her dream vehicle. Previously she shared a video named on LA life online, in which she mocked film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a show about Angelenos juggling benefits of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being accused of being a drug-addled stealer, and potentially becoming a risky persona non grata). Some could simple to create a program about internet celebrity that was overly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that belittled at the characters. I Love LA does neither, resulting in a depiction of advantaged millennial existence that’s candid about the grot and the shine.
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
