The performer joins the digital interview and immediately begins an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, seeming really regretful. Despite being only a bit late, she needs to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, for a writer, this is just what one hopes to hear. Additionally, it’s fairly unsurprising. Those who know her unapologetically openly gay and outspoken project titled Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with the director and appeared in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—would be aware that she has plenty to share, ranging from on roles, relationships, or the appeal of starting a youth fight club. And, by the end her latest multi-episode show I Love LA, it is clear that the star has even more thoughts about the darker side of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott represents an honorary member to younger audiences, on the cusp skilled for straddling both generations).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, citing the show in addition to Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as guides for I Love LA, which details the journey of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also fledgling representative Maia. However, the most significant spot on the moodboard went to the popular sitcom, that show depicting an emerging celebrity making his way in an often-seedy entertainment industry (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott discovered it during the pandemic, became “captivated”, and resolved to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The idea for the series emerged—partly—from her own, originally fractious, transition to Tinseltown and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about occurrence for followers. It was a phase that saw her grasp significant life lessons, work-wise and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she admits. “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…”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in New England, Sennott began creating and acting humor while studying theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott seized control, taking the stage at open mics with her friend and uploading uproarious (and very) unconventional online content online. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on several females fetishistically obsessed with having babies; another imagined working at the brand Hollister as akin to being stuck in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she met Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ultimately appearing in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her journey, she notes, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, instead of traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, continuing humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Individuals who were skeptical regarding Sennott then will surely be regretting it now. As part of she labels a “wild, full-circle” development, she appears to created the perfect project. In 2019 she shared a video named “it’s LA” on social media, in which she parodied film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a series about Angelenos managing the perks of digital stardom (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being suspected of being a intoxicated criminal, and perhaps becoming a risky persona non grata). It would be simple to produce a series about online fame that was overly aspirational—or, worse, one that mocked at the characters. This show steers clear of each, creating a representation of affluent young adult life that’s honest about the mess and the appeal.
Empathetic Approach
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” she observes. “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
