The star enters the video call and right away begins an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, seeming genuinely remorseful. Despite being only a couple of minutes delayed, she feels compelled to clarify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, during an interview, that’s precisely what you want to encounter. Additionally, it’s fairly predictable. Anyone who know her unapologetically LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass film Bottoms—that she co-wrote with her creative partner and appeared in with her friend the talented actress—will be aware that she has plenty to share, be it on roles, sex, or the pros of creating a high-school combat group. And, after watching her recent eight-part program I Love LA, viewers realize that she holds even more perspectives about the darker side of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott is a bridge of the gang, straddling eras adept for straddling different age groups).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
Parallels to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and the actress admits to being enthusiastic, referencing it together with the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as influences for the project, which tracks the journey of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion and new talent manager portrayed by Sennott. However, the largest spot on the moodboard belonged to Entourage, the HBO sitcom depicting an emerging A-list actor succeeding in a gritty LA scene (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott started watching it throughout COVID-19, became “captivated”, and chose 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 says. The idea for the series came—in part—from firsthand, at first difficult, transition to Tinseltown and from the saturn return, a frequently discussed phenomenon for followers. That period marked an era that involved her grasp some big life lessons, professionally and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in New England, the star started writing and performing humor while studying theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” 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. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She seized control, taking the stage at live shows with Edebiri and sharing hilarious (and very) unconventional online content digitally. One, Baby Cult, centered on characters obsessively drawn to motherhood; a different one imagined working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being stuck in a horror film. Interestingly, she connected with Emma through campus film circles and eventually appearing in her initial project, Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her path, she explains, has been peers offering opportunities, rather than established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, adding with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Individuals who were skeptical regarding her earlier will likely be feeling foolish today. As part of she labels a “wild, full-circle” development, she seems to have created the perfect project. Previously she shared a clip titled on LA life on the internet, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a show about LA residents balancing benefits of internet fame (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being labeled as being a substance-abusing thief, and possibly becoming a risky persona non grata). It would be simple to produce a program about internet celebrity that was horribly aspirational—or, more problematic, one that punched down at those depicted. The series avoids both, creating a depiction of advantaged young adult living that’s candid about the grot and the glamour.
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 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
