The performer enters the video call and at once begins an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, sounding genuinely remorseful. She is only a couple of minutes delayed, she needs to clarify. “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, this is precisely what is ideal to experience. Besides, it’s quite expected. Viewers familiar with her fearlessly LGBTQ+ and brash movie Bottoms—which she co-wrote with Emma Seligman and appeared in with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—can be aware that she possesses a lot to say, whether on roles, relationships, or the appeal of starting a teen combat group. And, after watching the latest eight-part HBO series I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star holds even more insights about the challenges of modern youth (At 30, she serves as a relatable figure of the gang, on the cusp skilled for bridging different age groups).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott admits to being a fan, referencing it in addition to the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as influences for the project, which follows the journey of online personality Tallulah and close companion and fledgling representative portrayed by Sennott. However, the most significant presence on the moodboard went to the HBO series, the show about a rising celebrity navigating in an often-seedy Hollywood (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She started watching it during COVID-19, became “captivated”, and decided 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 notes. The inspiration for the series originated—in part—from her own, at first difficult, transition to Los Angeles and from her saturn return, a frequently discussed event for followers. This represented a phase that involved her understand major insights, in her career and in private life. “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 …”
Humble Origins
Brought up in New England, Sennott commenced developing and showcasing humor while enrolled in performance 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.” 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 took matters into her own hands, performing at live shows with Edebiri and sharing hilarious (and decidedly) unconventional online content digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted a group of women fetishistically fixated on pregnancy; a different one portrayed being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being caught in a horror film. By chance, she connected with Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ended up featuring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the intense thriller. The big theme of her career, she notes, has been people her own age supporting her, instead of the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, stating amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who were skeptical regarding Sennott earlier will surely be regretting it now. In what she labels a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she has manifested her dream vehicle. Previously she shared a video titled about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a series about Angelenos balancing the perks of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your friend being labeled as being a drug-addled stealer, and potentially becoming a unreliable pariah). Some could simple to produce a series about online fame that was horribly idealized—or, worse, one that belittled at its subjects. I Love LA does neither, resulting in a representation of advantaged millennial existence that’s frank about the grot and the appeal.
Nuanced Portrayal
“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
