The performer enters the video call and immediately starts an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, seeming truly apologetic. Despite being only a couple of minutes behind, she wants to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, in this context, that’s precisely what you want to experience. Moreover, it’s fairly predictable. Viewers familiar with her unapologetically LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass movie Bottoms—that she penned with Emma Seligman and featured in with close companion Ayo Edebiri—can already know that she has a lot to discuss, be it about gender, intimacy, or the pros of starting a teen combat group. Plus, by the end the new multi-episode show I Love LA, it is clear that the star has even more thoughts regarding the struggles of Gen Z life (As a millennial, Sennott serves as a relatable figure for this generation, a tale-end millennial with a knack for straddling both generations).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
Parallels to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott readily acknowledges an admirer, naming the show together with the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as inspirations for her series, which tracks the travails of a social media star Tallulah and ally and aspiring representative portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the largest presence on creative vision belonged to Entourage, the program about a rising celebrity succeeding in a gritty entertainment industry (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it amid the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and resolved to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she notes. The concept for this project originated—in part—from her own, initially rocky, move to LA and from the astrological phase, a popular event for followers. That period marked an era that included her grasp major life lessons, work-wise and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she says. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in the East Coast, the star commenced developing and showcasing stand-up while pursuing acting at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she explains. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” 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.”
Sennott seized control, taking the stage at amateur nights with her friend and uploading hilarious (and distinctly) bizarre comedy videos digitally. One, Baby Cult, centered on a group of women fetishistically fixated on pregnancy; a different one portrayed working at a trendy retail outlet as like being caught in a thriller. Interestingly, she met Emma through campus film circles and eventually featuring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a funeral gathering with hints of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her journey, she explains, has been peers offering opportunities, instead of traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, stating humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who questioned about Sennott previously will certainly be regretting it today. Through she labels a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she appears to created her dream vehicle. A few years back she uploaded content titled about Los Angeles on social media, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a comedy about LA residents balancing the perks of digital stardom (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being suspected of being a drug-addled thief, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). Some could easy to produce a show about internet celebrity that was extremely glamorous—or, worse, one that mocked at its subjects. The series steers clear of each, creating a depiction of affluent twentysomething life that’s candid about the grot and the shine.
Balanced Perspective
“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
