The performer enters the video call and right away launches into an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, sounding genuinely remorseful. Despite being only a couple of minutes delayed, she needs to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s precisely what one hopes to experience. Besides, it’s quite predictable. Those familiar with the boldly queer and outspoken film Bottoms—which Sennott penned with Emma Seligman and starred in with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—will be aware that Sennott holds a lot to share, be it about gender, relationships, or the appeal of creating a teen fight club. And, after watching her recent multi-episode HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that she has further insights about the struggles of young adulthood (As a millennial, she serves as a bridge of the gang, on the cusp skilled for straddling different age groups).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, naming it together with Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for her series, which follows the journey of a social media star Tallulah and her friend who is also fledgling agent Sennott’s character. Notably, the biggest presence on creative vision belonged to Entourage, that show focusing on a rising A-list actor succeeding in a gritty entertainment industry (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She discovered it amid the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and decided to add a fresh perspective on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The inspiration for I Love LA originated—to some extent—from her own, at first difficult, move to Los Angeles and from the saturn return, a frequently discussed event for astrology heads. It was an era that involved her learn significant truths, professionally and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” 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 the East Coast, the star commenced writing and performing comedy while enrolled in theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” 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. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
She decided to act independently, taking the stage at live shows with Ayo and sharing hysterical (and decidedly) unconventional comedy videos online. One, titled Baby Cult, followed a group of women fetishistically fixated on motherhood; a different one imagined working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being trapped in a scary movie. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and eventually featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a Jewish wake with hints of the intense thriller. The central motif of her career, she notes, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, instead of traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, stating humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Rising Success
Those who had doubts about her then will surely be regretting it today. As part of she calls a “incredibly circular” story, she appears to manifested an ideal role. A few years back she uploaded a video called “it’s LA” online, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a series about city dwellers managing benefits of internet fame (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being labeled as being a intoxicated stealer, and possibly becoming a unreliable outcast). Some could easy to make a program about internet celebrity that was extremely glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at its subjects. This show steers clear of each, resulting in a portrait of affluent twentysomething living that’s honest about the mess and the appeal.
Balanced Perspective
“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
