The performer enters the digital interview and immediately begins an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, seeming really regretful. Despite being only a bit behind, she wants to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, for a writer, this is just what one hopes to hear. Besides, it’s pretty unsurprising. Viewers familiar with her unapologetically queer and brash film Bottoms—which she penned with her creative partner and featured in alongside her friend The Bear’s standout—can understand that she has much to say, ranging from about gender, relationships, or the pros of forming a high-school brawl society. And, after watching her latest multi-episode show I Love LA, viewers realize that the star has even more thoughts about the challenges of modern youth (Now in her thirties, Sennott is an honorary member for this generation, a tale-end millennial adept for connecting both generations).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress readily acknowledges enthusiastic, naming the show together with the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as influences for I Love LA, which details the struggles of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and fledgling agent portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the most significant presence on concept was reserved for the HBO series, that HBO sitcom about an emerging A-list actor making his way in a gritty Hollywood (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott began viewing it amid the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and resolved to put her own twist 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 originated—to some extent—from personal, originally fractious, transition to LA and from her saturn return, a popular event for followers. It was a phase that included her grasp significant truths, in her career and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Starting Out
Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott commenced writing and performing comedy while pursuing theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She decided to act independently, taking the stage at open mics with Edebiri and uploading hilarious (and distinctly) weird online content on the internet. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on characters fetishistically fixated on pregnancy; a different one imagined being employed at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being trapped in a thriller. By chance, she met Emma through campus film circles and eventually appearing in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a funeral gathering with hints of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her path, she says, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, instead of established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, adding amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Rising Success
Those who were skeptical regarding Sennott then will certainly be feeling foolish now. Through she describes as a “wild, full-circle” development, she appears to achieved her dream vehicle. Previously she shared a video named about Los Angeles online, in which she lampooned film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a show about city dwellers balancing the perks of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your client being labeled as being a drug-addled stealer, and perhaps becoming a risky outcast). One might simple to produce a series about digital influence that was extremely aspirational—or, worse, one that belittled at the characters. I Love LA avoids both, creating a depiction of affluent young adult existence that’s frank about the grot and the appeal.
Balanced Perspective
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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