The star joins the online meeting and immediately launches into an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, sounding really regretful. Despite being only a bit behind, she feels compelled to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, for a writer, this is precisely what one hopes to encounter. Additionally, it’s fairly unsurprising. Viewers who know her unapologetically LGBTQ+ and brash movie Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with Emma Seligman and appeared in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—would understand that she holds a lot to say, be it on roles, relationships, or the pros of forming a high-school fight club. Plus, by the end her new multi-episode HBO series titled I Love LA, viewers realize that the star carries additional insights regarding the darker side of modern youth (As a millennial, she represents a bridge to younger audiences, on the cusp adept for connecting both generations).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and the actress admits to being a fan, referencing the show in addition to the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as inspirations for her series, which follows the struggles of a social media star Tallulah and her friend and fledgling representative Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the largest influence on concept was reserved for the HBO series, the program focusing on an up-and-coming celebrity making his way in a corrupt LA scene (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott started watching it throughout the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and chose to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she says. The concept for the series emerged—in part—from her own, at first difficult, relocation to Los Angeles and from the astrological phase, a much-talked-about phenomenon for enthusiasts. That period marked an era that saw her learn significant life lessons, in her career and in private life. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “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…”
Starting Out
Brought up in the East Coast, the star started writing and performing comedy while enrolled in theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She decided to act independently, performing at open mics with Ayo and sharing hysterical (and decidedly) weird comedy videos online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, followed characters fetishistically drawn to motherhood; another envisioned working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being trapped in a thriller. By chance, she connected with Seligman through the university’s film scene and eventually starring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a Jewish wake with hints of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her path, she explains, has been people her own age offering opportunities, rather than traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, continuing with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Rising Success
Anyone who had doubts regarding her then will likely be regretting it now. Through she calls a “incredibly circular” story, she appears to manifested her dream vehicle. A few years back she posted a clip titled on LA life on social media, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a series about LA residents managing advantages of online celebrity (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your client being suspected of being a intoxicated thief, and possibly becoming a risky pariah). Some could easy to create a series about digital influence that was overly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at the characters. The series does neither, making for a representation of advantaged millennial existence that’s frank about the chaos and the glamour.
Balanced Perspective
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” she comments. “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
