The star enters the digital interview and immediately launches into an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, seeming genuinely regretful. She is only a bit delayed, she wants to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, during an interview, that’s precisely what you want to hear. Moreover, it’s fairly unsurprising. Anyone who know her unapologetically LGBTQ+ and brash project titled Bottoms—which she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and appeared in with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—would understand that Sennott possesses plenty to discuss, whether about identity, sex, or the merits of forming a high-school fight club. Plus, after watching the recent eight-part show titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries further perspectives on the darker side of modern youth (At 30, she is a bridge of the gang, straddling eras skilled for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and the actress admits to being a fan, referencing it in addition to the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for I Love LA, which details the travails of an influencer Tallulah and close companion and aspiring agent Maia. Notably, the biggest presence on creative vision went to the HBO series, the HBO sitcom about a rising celebrity navigating in an often-seedy entertainment industry (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it amid the pandemic, became “captivated”, and chose to create a new version 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 explains. The idea for this project came—partly—from personal, originally difficult, transition to Tinseltown and from the saturn return, a popular phenomenon for enthusiasts. This represented a phase that saw her learn significant insights, in her career and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” 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…”
Starting Out
Raised in the East Coast, Sennott began creating and acting comedy while studying theatre at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
She seized control, appearing at live shows with Ayo and uploading hilarious (and very) bizarre skits on the internet. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed a group of women fetishistically obsessed with having babies; a different one portrayed working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being caught in a horror film. Interestingly, she connected with Emma through campus film circles and ultimately appearing in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her career, she explains, has been people her own age giving her a shot, rather than traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, stating amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Individuals who were skeptical regarding her earlier will certainly be feeling foolish today. Through she labels a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she has achieved the perfect project. Previously she posted a clip titled about Los Angeles online, in which she mocked movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a series about LA residents managing advantages of digital stardom (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being accused of being a intoxicated thief, and potentially becoming a risky pariah). It would be easy to produce a show about digital influence that was horribly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at those depicted. This show steers clear of each, making for a depiction of affluent twentysomething existence that’s candid about the chaos and the appeal.
Empathetic Approach
“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
