The performer enters the online meeting and immediately begins an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, sounding really apologetic. She is only slightly delayed, she needs to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, during an interview, this is precisely what is ideal to hear. Moreover, it’s quite unsurprising. Those who have seen her fearlessly openly gay and brash project Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with her creative partner and starred in together with her friend Ayo Edebiri—would be aware that she possesses much to discuss, be it about gender, relationships, or the pros of creating a teen fight club. Plus, by the end the latest seasonal HBO series titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star has additional insights on the struggles of Gen Z life (At 30, she serves as a bridge for this generation, on the cusp skilled for connecting different age groups).
Influences and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and the actress admits to being a fan, naming it in addition to the HBO hit, Insecure and Atlanta as influences for I Love LA, which follows the journey of online personality Tallulah and her friend who is also new representative Sennott’s character. However, the most significant spot on concept went to the popular sitcom, the program depicting a rising A-list actor succeeding in a gritty entertainment industry (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She discovered it during lockdown, became “obsessed”, and resolved 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 says. The idea for the series originated—to some extent—from firsthand, originally fractious, transition to LA and from the cosmic event, a popular phenomenon for astrology heads. This represented an era that involved her learn significant life lessons, in her career and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in New England, Sennott started writing and performing humor while enrolled in acting 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 states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott decided to act independently, appearing at amateur nights with Edebiri and posting uproarious (and decidedly) weird comedy videos online. One, Baby Cult, centered on a group of women obsessively obsessed with motherhood; a different one envisioned working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being trapped in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ended up appearing in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the intense thriller. The central motif of her path, she says, has been peers giving her a shot, rather than traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she confirms, stating amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Anyone who had doubts regarding her previously will likely be regretting it today. In what she calls a “wild, full-circle” development, she seems to have manifested her dream vehicle. A few years back she uploaded a clip titled “it’s LA” online, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a show about Angelenos balancing benefits of digital stardom (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your friend being suspected of being a intoxicated stealer, and potentially becoming a unreliable pariah). It would be simple to produce a program about online fame that was horribly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at its subjects. The series does neither, resulting in a representation of advantaged young adult life that’s honest about the mess and the shine.
Balanced Perspective
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” she observes. “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
