The performer enters the online meeting and at once begins an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, seeming truly apologetic. Although she's only a couple of minutes behind, she wants to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s just what one hopes to experience. Moreover, it’s fairly unsurprising. Anyone who have seen the fearlessly LGBTQ+ and outspoken project Bottoms—which she collaborated on with her creative partner and starred in with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—can be aware that Sennott has plenty to share, whether on gender, intimacy, or the appeal of starting a teen combat group. And, once you finish her new eight-part HBO series I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star carries additional insights on the struggles of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott represents an honorary member for this generation, a tale-end millennial skilled for straddling both generations).
Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress is an admirer, citing the show in addition to the HBO hit, Insecure and Atlanta as influences for the project, which follows the journey of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also aspiring representative Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the biggest spot on the moodboard went to Entourage, the program focusing on a rising A-list actor making his way in an often-seedy LA scene (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She began viewing it amid COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and chose to add a fresh perspective 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 idea for I Love LA came—in part—from firsthand, initially rocky, relocation to LA and from the saturn return, a popular phenomenon for enthusiasts. This represented an era that involved her understand some big life lessons, work-wise and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Raised in the East Coast, Sennott started writing and performing humor while studying acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “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 decided to act independently, performing at open mics with her friend and uploading hilarious (and decidedly) bizarre online content on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on characters intensely obsessed with motherhood; another portrayed working at the brand Hollister as akin to being trapped in a thriller. By chance, she connected with Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ultimately appearing in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a Jewish wake with shades of the intense thriller. The big theme of her journey, she says, has been people her own age offering opportunities, instead of traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, stating amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Individuals who had doubts regarding her previously will surely be kicking themselves today. As part of she labels a “incredibly circular” story, she has created the perfect project. Previously she shared content titled on LA life on the internet, in which she parodied film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about city dwellers managing the perks of internet fame (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being labeled as being a drug-addled criminal, and possibly becoming a risky persona non grata). It would be tempting to create a show about internet celebrity that was overly aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at those depicted. The series does neither, creating a representation of privileged twentysomething living that’s honest about the chaos and the appeal.
Balanced Perspective
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
