The performer appears on the video call and immediately begins an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, seeming genuinely apologetic. Despite being only slightly delayed, she wants to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, during an interview, that’s exactly what is ideal to hear. Additionally, it’s fairly predictable. Anyone familiar with her fearlessly openly gay and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—that Sennott penned with Emma Seligman and appeared in together with close companion Ayo Edebiri—can be aware that Sennott has plenty to share, be it on roles, intimacy, or the merits of creating a teen combat group. Plus, once you finish her recent multi-episode program titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star has additional perspectives regarding the challenges of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, she is an honorary member of the gang, on the cusp skilled for straddling both generations).
Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott readily acknowledges enthusiastic, referencing the show in addition to Sex and the City, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as influences for the project, which follows the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and new agent Maia. Notably, the most significant influence on creative vision belonged to the popular sitcom, the program focusing on a rising A-list actor succeeding in a gritty Hollywood (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott began viewing it during COVID-19, became “hooked”, and resolved to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she explains. The idea for the series originated—in part—from her own, at first difficult, relocation to Tinseltown and from the saturn return, a much-talked-about phenomenon for enthusiasts. This represented a phase that involved her grasp significant insights, in her career and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Humble Origins
Growing up in the East Coast, Sennott started writing and performing comedy while pursuing theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
She took matters into her own hands, performing at live shows with her friend and sharing hilarious (and distinctly) unconventional skits online. One, Baby Cult, centered on a group of women fetishistically drawn to motherhood; a different one portrayed being employed at the brand Hollister as akin to being trapped in a thriller. By chance, she met Seligman through campus film circles and ultimately appearing in her first film, Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a religious event with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her career, she says, has been peers supporting her, rather than the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she confirms, adding with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who were skeptical about Sennott previously will surely be feeling foolish today. As part of she calls a “incredibly circular” story, she has manifested her dream vehicle. In 2019 she posted a clip called on LA life on the internet, in which she mocked movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a series about city dwellers juggling the perks of digital stardom (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your friend being suspected of being a drug-addled stealer, and possibly becoming a unreliable outcast). Some could simple to create a program about internet celebrity that was extremely idealized—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at those depicted. I Love LA does neither, resulting in a portrait of affluent millennial life that’s frank about the mess and the glamour.
Empathetic Approach
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
