The star appears on the digital interview and right away launches into an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, seeming genuinely regretful. Despite being only a couple of minutes late, she needs to clarify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, during an interview, this is exactly what is ideal to hear. Moreover, it’s fairly unsurprising. Anyone familiar with the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and brash project Bottoms—which she penned with her creative partner and starred in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—will already know that she possesses much to discuss, whether about roles, relationships, or the appeal of starting a high-school brawl society. Plus, by the end the latest seasonal program I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she carries even more thoughts on the struggles of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott is a relatable figure for this generation, straddling eras adept for bridging both generations).
Influences and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, citing it alongside the classic series, Insecure and the innovative program as influences for the project, which details the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also new talent manager Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the biggest presence on creative vision was reserved for the HBO series, that program about an emerging A-list actor succeeding in a gritty Hollywood (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She discovered it amid the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and resolved to put her own twist 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 notes. The idea for I Love LA originated—in part—from firsthand, originally rocky, transition to Tinseltown and from the cosmic event, a popular occurrence for astrology heads. This represented a time that saw her understand some big insights, in her career and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “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…”
Humble Origins
Brought up in the East Coast, Sennott started developing and showcasing humor while studying performance 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. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
She seized control, performing at open mics with Edebiri and sharing hysterical (and distinctly) weird online content online. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on several females intensely obsessed with pregnancy; another imagined being employed at the brand Hollister as akin to being trapped in a thriller. Interestingly, she met Emma through the university’s film scene and eventually appearing in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a religious event with echoes of the intense thriller. The central motif of her journey, she explains, has been people her own age supporting her, as opposed to established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, continuing with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who had doubts about Sennott then will certainly be kicking themselves now. In what she describes as a “incredibly circular” story, she appears to manifested the perfect project. In 2019 she posted a video called “it’s LA” on social media, in which she mocked movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about LA residents balancing benefits of online celebrity (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your friend being accused of being a substance-abusing stealer, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). One might tempting to produce a series about internet celebrity that was overly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that belittled at those depicted. This show does neither, creating a portrait of privileged millennial living that’s frank about the grot and the shine.
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 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
