The performer enters the video call and right away launches into an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, sounding truly apologetic. Despite being only slightly delayed, she feels compelled to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, in this context, that’s just what one hopes to encounter. Besides, it’s fairly expected. Viewers familiar with the unapologetically openly gay and outspoken project titled Bottoms—that she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and featured in alongside collaborator Ayo Edebiri—would be aware that she has a lot to share, ranging from on identity, intimacy, or the appeal of forming a high-school brawl society. Furthermore, after watching her recent multi-episode show I Love LA, viewers realize that the star carries even more insights regarding the challenges of Gen Z life (At 30, she serves as an honorary member to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial adept for bridging different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, citing it together with the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as influences for her series, which follows the journey of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and fledgling talent manager Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the largest influence on the moodboard was reserved for Entourage, the program depicting an up-and-coming Hollywood star navigating in a corrupt entertainment industry (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott started watching it amid COVID-19, became “captivated”, and decided 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 says. The idea for the series emerged—to some extent—from her own, at first rocky, move to Tinseltown and from the cosmic event, a much-talked-about event for followers. This represented a time that included her learn some big truths, work-wise and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Starting Out
Brought up in New England, the star began writing and performing comedy while enrolled in acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She seized control, taking the stage at open mics with Ayo and posting uproarious (and decidedly) weird online content on the internet. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on characters fetishistically obsessed with motherhood; another envisioned working at the brand Hollister as like being caught in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she met Emma through the university’s film scene and ultimately appearing in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a funeral gathering with hints of the intense thriller. The big theme of her path, she explains, has been people her own age giving her a shot, instead of established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, adding amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Anyone who were skeptical about her earlier will likely be kicking themselves currently. In what she calls a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she seems to have achieved an ideal role. In 2019 she uploaded a clip titled about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she mocked movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a show about LA residents balancing the perks of internet fame (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your client being accused of being a drug-addled criminal, and perhaps becoming a unreliable outcast). One might simple to create a program about online fame that was overly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that belittled at the characters. I Love LA does neither, creating a depiction of privileged millennial existence that’s honest about the grot 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 says. “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
