The performer joins the video call and immediately begins an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, seeming genuinely apologetic. Although she's only a couple of minutes late, 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, that’s exactly what one hopes to experience. Moreover, it’s quite predictable. Viewers who know her fearlessly openly gay and brash movie Bottoms—which she penned with her creative partner and featured in alongside her friend Ayo Edebiri—would understand that Sennott possesses much to say, be it about gender, sex, or the appeal of starting a teen combat group. Furthermore, after watching the latest eight-part show I Love LA, viewers realize that she carries even more insights about the struggles of modern youth (Now in her thirties, Sennott is a relatable figure of the gang, straddling eras skilled for bridging different age groups).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and the actress admits to being a fan, citing the show alongside Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for I Love LA, which tracks the struggles of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also new agent Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the most significant influence on concept went to the HBO series, that HBO sitcom about an emerging Hollywood star navigating in a corrupt entertainment industry (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She started watching it during COVID-19, became “hooked”, and chose to create a new version on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she notes. The idea for this project originated—in part—from personal, at first rocky, relocation to Los Angeles and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about occurrence for enthusiasts. This represented an era that included her grasp significant truths, work-wise and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “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…”
Humble Origins
Brought up in New England, Sennott commenced developing and showcasing stand-up while enrolled in performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
She decided to act independently, appearing at amateur nights with Ayo and sharing uproarious (and very) weird online content online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, followed a group of women intensely obsessed with pregnancy; a different one envisioned being employed at the brand Hollister as akin to being stuck in a horror film. By chance, she met Emma through the university’s film scene and eventually featuring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of the intense thriller. The central motif of her career, she says, has been peers giving her a shot, as opposed to traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she confirms, continuing humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who were skeptical regarding her earlier will certainly be kicking themselves now. In what she describes as a “astonishingly complete” story, she has achieved her dream vehicle. In 2019 she shared a video named “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she mocked movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a show about city dwellers juggling advantages of online celebrity (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your client being accused of being a drug-addled thief, and possibly becoming a risky outcast). It would be simple to make a program about digital influence that was overly idealized—or, more problematic, one that punched down at those depicted. I Love LA does neither, creating a representation of privileged millennial living that’s honest about the chaos and the glamour.
Empathetic Approach
“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
