The performer appears on the digital interview and right away launches into an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, seeming truly apologetic. Despite being only a bit delayed, she feels compelled to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, during an interview, this is just what is ideal to hear. Moreover, it’s fairly expected. Those who have seen her unapologetically queer and brash movie titled Bottoms—that she penned with the director and starred in alongside collaborator the talented actress—can already know that she holds plenty to discuss, be it on identity, intimacy, or the merits of starting a high-school fight club. Plus, once you finish her new multi-episode show I Love LA, viewers realize that she has even more perspectives regarding the darker side of Gen Z life (As a millennial, Sennott is a bridge of the gang, on the cusp adept for connecting both generations).
Influences and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and Sennott admits to being an admirer, citing the show alongside Sex and the City, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for the project, which details the travails of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and new representative portrayed by Sennott. However, the largest influence on the moodboard belonged to the HBO series, that show focusing on an emerging celebrity making his way in a corrupt Hollywood (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott started watching it amid the pandemic, became “captivated”, and decided to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she notes. The inspiration for I Love LA came—to some extent—from firsthand, initially rocky, transition to Los Angeles and from the cosmic event, a frequently discussed event for followers. It was a phase that saw her understand major life lessons, work-wise and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Starting Out
Brought up in Connecticut, the star began creating and acting humor while pursuing acting at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She took matters into her own hands, performing at amateur nights with Edebiri and sharing hysterical (and very) unconventional comedy videos online. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on several females fetishistically obsessed with having babies; a different one imagined working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being caught in a thriller. By chance, she connected with Emma through campus film circles and ultimately starring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her path, she says, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, rather than established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she repeats, adding with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Rising Success
Anyone who questioned regarding her then will certainly be feeling foolish currently. Through she describes as a “wild, full-circle” story, she has created her dream vehicle. Previously she posted a clip called about Los Angeles online, in which she lampooned film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about LA residents balancing advantages of digital stardom (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your friend being labeled as being a substance-abusing thief, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). It would be easy to produce a program about digital influence that was extremely glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at the characters. This show avoids both, creating a representation of privileged twentysomething life that’s candid about the chaos and the glamour.
Nuanced Portrayal
“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
