The star enters the digital interview and right away starts an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, sounding genuinely apologetic. Despite being only a bit late, she feels compelled to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, in this context, this is precisely what is ideal to encounter. Moreover, it’s quite unsurprising. Anyone who have seen her unapologetically LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass project titled Bottoms—which she collaborated on with the director and starred in together with her friend Ayo Edebiri—can understand that Sennott has plenty to say, whether on identity, sex, or the merits of forming a high-school fight club. And, by the end her new multi-episode HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that she holds additional perspectives regarding the struggles of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, Sennott represents a bridge of the gang, straddling eras adept for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and Sennott is an admirer, naming it alongside the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as inspirations for her series, which follows the struggles of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also new talent manager Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the most significant influence on creative vision was reserved for the popular sitcom, the program focusing on an emerging A-list actor navigating in a corrupt LA scene (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott started watching it amid COVID-19, 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 explains. The concept for I Love LA came—partly—from personal, initially fractious, relocation to Tinseltown and from her cosmic event, a much-talked-about event for enthusiasts. This represented an era that involved her learn some big life lessons, work-wise and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Raised in Connecticut, the star commenced developing and showcasing humor while enrolled in acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” 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.”
Sennott seized control, appearing at live shows with Ayo and posting uproarious (and very) unconventional comedy videos digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted a group of women intensely fixated on having babies; another portrayed being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being caught in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Seligman through the university’s film scene and ended up starring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a Jewish wake with hints of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her career, she notes, has been peers giving her a shot, as opposed to the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, stating with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who were skeptical about her earlier will likely be regretting it today. As part of she calls a “astonishingly complete” development, she has created her dream vehicle. A few years back she shared a clip titled on LA life on social media, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a show about LA residents juggling benefits of internet fame (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your client being accused of being a intoxicated stealer, and potentially becoming a unreliable outcast). One might simple to produce a show about internet celebrity that was horribly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at those depicted. The series does neither, creating a portrait of advantaged young adult existence that’s honest about the mess 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 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
