The star enters the digital interview and immediately starts an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, seeming truly regretful. Although she's only slightly behind, she feels compelled to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, during an interview, this is just what you want to hear. Additionally, it’s pretty unsurprising. Anyone who have seen her unapologetically openly gay and outspoken movie Bottoms—which she penned with the director and featured in together with close companion The Bear’s standout—will understand that Sennott possesses a lot to discuss, whether on roles, relationships, or the merits of forming a youth fight club. Plus, once you finish the new seasonal show titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she carries further thoughts about the struggles of modern youth (Now in her thirties, she serves as a bridge to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial with a knack for connecting different age groups).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress is enthusiastic, naming the show alongside the HBO hit, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as guides for the project, which details the journey of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and fledgling talent manager Sennott’s character. Notably, the largest spot on the moodboard belonged to the HBO series, that program about an emerging celebrity navigating in an often-seedy Hollywood (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She started watching it during 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 inspiration for the series originated—to some extent—from firsthand, at first difficult, move to Los Angeles and from the astrological phase, a popular phenomenon for enthusiasts. It was a phase that involved her grasp major life lessons, work-wise and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Humble Origins
Growing up in New England, Sennott started developing and showcasing stand-up while enrolled in acting at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She seized control, taking the stage at amateur nights with Edebiri and sharing hilarious (and very) weird comedy videos on the internet. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed a group of women obsessively obsessed with having babies; another portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as like being caught in a thriller. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and eventually starring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her journey, she notes, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, as opposed to established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, adding with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who had doubts about her then will likely be regretting it now. In what she describes as a “incredibly circular” story, she seems to have created an ideal role. In 2019 she uploaded content titled “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a series about Angelenos balancing advantages of internet fame (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being suspected of being a intoxicated stealer, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). It would be easy to make a program about internet celebrity that was extremely glamorous—or, worse, one that punched down at those depicted. I Love LA avoids both, making for a depiction of advantaged twentysomething existence that’s frank about the grot and the glamour.
Balanced Perspective
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
