The star enters the video call and immediately begins an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, seeming truly remorseful. She is only a couple of minutes delayed, she wants to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, for a writer, that’s precisely what one hopes to encounter. Additionally, it’s quite predictable. Anyone familiar with her boldly queer and unapologetically crass project Bottoms—which Sennott penned with her creative partner and starred in with close companion the talented actress—will be aware that Sennott has a lot to say, ranging from on roles, relationships, or the appeal of forming a high-school combat group. And, once you finish the latest multi-episode HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries additional thoughts on the challenges of young adulthood (As a millennial, Sennott serves as a relatable figure for this generation, a tale-end millennial with a knack for straddling both generations).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and the actress readily acknowledges an admirer, citing the show together with the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as guides for I Love LA, which details the travails of an influencer Tallulah and close companion who is also fledgling talent manager portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the most significant presence on concept went to Entourage, the program focusing on an emerging A-list actor navigating in a gritty LA scene (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott started watching it throughout lockdown, became “obsessed”, and resolved to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she explains. The inspiration for I Love LA came—to some extent—from her own, originally rocky, transition to LA and from the astrological phase, a frequently discussed occurrence for followers. That period marked a time that saw her grasp significant truths, work-wise and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in the East Coast, Sennott began writing and performing 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.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott seized control, taking the stage at open mics with her friend and posting hilarious (and decidedly) bizarre skits on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, followed a group of women obsessively fixated on having babies; another portrayed working at the brand Hollister as similar to being trapped in a thriller. By chance, she encountered Emma through campus film circles and ended up featuring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a religious event with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her career, she explains, has been peers offering opportunities, as opposed to the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she repeats, stating amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Those who had doubts about Sennott earlier will likely be kicking themselves today. Through she calls a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she seems to have manifested an ideal role. In 2019 she shared content titled on LA life on the internet, in which she parodied movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a series about LA residents managing the perks of internet fame (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being labeled as being a substance-abusing criminal, and possibly becoming a risky pariah). One might tempting to make a show about online fame that was horribly idealized—or, worse, one that mocked at its subjects. The series does neither, making for a representation of privileged twentysomething life that’s frank about the grot and the appeal.
Balanced Perspective
“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
