The star enters the digital interview and immediately launches into an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, appearing really apologetic. She is only a couple of minutes behind, she feels compelled to clarify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, for a writer, this is exactly what one hopes to experience. Moreover, it’s pretty unsurprising. Those who know her fearlessly LGBTQ+ and brash movie Bottoms—which she collaborated on with the director and featured in together with her friend the talented actress—would already know that Sennott possesses much to share, be it about identity, sex, or the pros of starting a teen combat group. Furthermore, after watching her new multi-episode show titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she carries further perspectives on the struggles of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, she is an honorary member of the gang, on the cusp skilled for straddling different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and the actress admits to being enthusiastic, citing the show alongside the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as inspirations for the project, which details the journey of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also new representative Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the largest spot on creative vision was reserved for the HBO series, that program focusing on an up-and-coming A-list actor making his way in an often-seedy LA scene (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott discovered it throughout the pandemic, became “hooked”, and resolved to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she notes. The concept for the series came—partly—from personal, at first difficult, relocation to Los Angeles and from the astrological phase, a popular event for astrology heads. That period marked an era that saw her grasp significant life lessons, in her career and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” 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 New England, the star commenced creating and acting comedy while pursuing performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, performing at live shows with Edebiri and posting hilarious (and distinctly) unconventional skits digitally. One, Baby Cult, centered on several females fetishistically obsessed with pregnancy; another imagined being employed at the brand Hollister as akin to being caught in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually appearing in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a Jewish wake with echoes of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her journey, she notes, has been contemporaries supporting her, as opposed to established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, adding humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Anyone who had doubts about Sennott then will likely be kicking themselves currently. In what she labels a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she seems to have manifested the perfect project. In 2019 she posted a video named on LA life on social media, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about city dwellers balancing benefits of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being suspected of being a drug-addled stealer, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). Some could simple to make a series about digital influence that was horribly idealized—or, more problematic, one that belittled at its subjects. The series avoids both, making for a representation of affluent young adult existence that’s candid about the grot and the glamour.
Empathetic Approach
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” she comments. “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
