The star enters the video call and at once launches into an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, seeming really apologetic. Although she's only slightly delayed, she wants to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, during an interview, that’s precisely what one hopes to experience. Moreover, it’s fairly unsurprising. Anyone who know the unapologetically queer and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—that Sennott penned with the director and starred in alongside close companion The Bear’s standout—can understand that Sennott holds much to discuss, ranging from about identity, relationships, or the merits of forming a teen combat group. Plus, by the end her latest seasonal HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries additional perspectives on the struggles of young adulthood (As a millennial, Sennott serves as an honorary member to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial with a knack for straddling different age groups).
Influences and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott readily acknowledges enthusiastic, referencing the show alongside Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as guides for the project, which tracks the journey of online personality Tallulah and close companion and fledgling representative Maia. Perhaps, the largest spot on the moodboard went to the HBO series, the program depicting an emerging Hollywood star succeeding in a gritty entertainment industry (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She discovered it during the pandemic, became “captivated”, and decided to put her own twist 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 inspiration for I Love LA originated—in part—from her own, initially fractious, transition to LA and from her saturn return, a popular phenomenon for astrology heads. This represented an era that involved her grasp major truths, in her career and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in the East Coast, Sennott started writing and performing humor while studying acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott decided to act independently, appearing at open mics with her friend and sharing hysterical (and distinctly) bizarre online content on the internet. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on several females obsessively drawn to having babies; another imagined working at the brand Hollister as similar to being caught in a scary movie. By chance, she connected with Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up starring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a religious event with hints of the intense thriller. The big theme of her journey, she notes, has been peers giving her a shot, instead of established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, stating with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Individuals who were skeptical regarding her earlier will certainly be regretting it today. As part of she labels a “astonishingly complete” story, she has manifested the perfect project. In 2019 she shared content titled “it’s LA” online, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a comedy about Angelenos juggling the perks of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your client being labeled as being a drug-addled stealer, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). Some could easy to make a series about internet celebrity that was extremely idealized—or, more problematic, one that mocked at those depicted. I Love LA does neither, resulting in a portrait of privileged millennial life that’s honest about the grot and the glamour.
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
