The star enters the video call and at once begins an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, appearing really apologetic. She is only a bit delayed, she needs to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s just what you want to experience. Besides, it’s quite expected. Viewers familiar with the boldly queer and unapologetically crass movie Bottoms—which she penned with Emma Seligman and appeared in alongside close companion the talented actress—would already know that she holds plenty to share, whether on identity, intimacy, or the appeal of forming a youth fight club. And, once you finish the recent multi-episode program titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star has further insights regarding the struggles of young adulthood (At 30, Sennott represents an honorary member of the gang, a tale-end millennial adept for straddling both generations).
Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and the actress is a fan, citing the show alongside Sex and the City, Insecure and Atlanta as influences for I Love LA, which tracks the journey of a social media star Tallulah and ally and new agent Sennott’s character. Notably, the biggest presence on creative vision went to the HBO series, the program about a rising Hollywood star succeeding in a gritty LA scene (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it during the pandemic, became “hooked”, and resolved to add a fresh perspective 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 this project came—in part—from her own, initially difficult, transition to LA and from the cosmic event, a frequently discussed occurrence for enthusiasts. It was a time that involved her understand some big life lessons, in her career and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Starting Out
Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott started writing and performing stand-up 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. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott seized control, appearing at live shows with Ayo and uploading hysterical (and decidedly) unconventional online content digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, followed characters fetishistically obsessed with motherhood; another portrayed being employed at the brand Hollister as like being stuck in a scary movie. Interestingly, she met Seligman through campus film circles and eventually appearing in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her journey, she explains, has been peers giving her a shot, instead of the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she confirms, continuing amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Rising Success
Those who had doubts regarding Sennott earlier will certainly be feeling foolish today. Through she labels a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she appears to achieved her dream vehicle. A few years back she posted content called on LA life online, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a comedy about city dwellers balancing advantages of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being accused of being a drug-addled criminal, and potentially becoming a risky persona non grata). It would be simple to create a program about internet celebrity that was overly idealized—or, more problematic, one that belittled at the characters. The series does neither, making for a portrait of affluent twentysomething existence that’s honest about the mess and the appeal.
Empathetic Approach
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
