The performer joins the video call and right away starts an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, appearing truly apologetic. Although she's only a bit behind, she wants to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, in this context, that’s just what you want to encounter. Besides, it’s pretty expected. Those who have seen the boldly LGBTQ+ and brash film titled Bottoms—which she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and featured in alongside her friend the talented actress—will understand that Sennott has plenty to share, be it about gender, sex, or the merits of starting a youth fight club. Furthermore, once you finish the new eight-part HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that she carries even more thoughts regarding the darker side of Gen Z life (At 30, she is an honorary member of the gang, straddling eras with a knack for straddling both generations).
Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and the actress is enthusiastic, citing the show together with the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as inspirations for I Love LA, which details the journey of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also fledgling representative Sennott’s character. Notably, the biggest presence on the moodboard was reserved for the popular sitcom, that program depicting an emerging A-list actor making his way in a gritty LA scene (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She began viewing it throughout lockdown, became “hooked”, and chose to add a fresh perspective 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 originated—in part—from her own, initially difficult, move to Los Angeles and from the cosmic event, a popular phenomenon for astrology heads. That period marked a phase that included her grasp major insights, work-wise and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Starting Out
Growing up in Connecticut, the star started creating and acting comedy while studying acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. 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 hilarious (and very) weird skits on the internet. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women intensely obsessed with pregnancy; a different one imagined being employed at the brand Hollister as akin to being stuck in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Emma through the university’s film scene and ultimately starring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a Jewish wake with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her path, she notes, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, as opposed to the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, continuing humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who were skeptical about her then will surely be feeling foolish now. Through she labels a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she seems to have manifested an ideal role. In 2019 she shared a video named on LA life on social media, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a series about city dwellers managing the perks of digital stardom (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your client being labeled as being a substance-abusing stealer, and potentially becoming a unreliable persona non grata). It would be simple to create a show about internet celebrity that was extremely glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at its subjects. This show does neither, creating a representation of affluent twentysomething living that’s honest about the chaos and the shine.
Empathetic Approach
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
