The star appears on the video call and right away begins an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, sounding really regretful. Although she's only a bit late, she needs to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, for a writer, this is exactly what one hopes to hear. Additionally, it’s fairly predictable. Those who have seen the boldly queer and brash film Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with her creative partner and featured in with her friend The Bear’s standout—would already know that Sennott has much to say, ranging from on roles, relationships, or the merits of creating a teen fight club. Furthermore, by the end the new seasonal show titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she carries even more perspectives regarding the darker side of Gen Z life (At 30, she represents an honorary member of the gang, straddling eras adept for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and the actress readily acknowledges a fan, citing the show alongside Sex and the City, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as influences for her series, which details the journey of a social media star Tallulah and her friend who is also fledgling talent manager Sennott’s character. Notably, the largest influence on creative vision went to Entourage, the show about an up-and-coming Hollywood star making his way in a gritty Hollywood (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott discovered it amid the pandemic, became “hooked”, and chose to put her own twist 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 explains. The idea for this project came—partly—from personal, initially rocky, relocation to Tinseltown and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about occurrence for astrology heads. It was a time that included her grasp major insights, professionally and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “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…”
Humble Origins
Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott began developing and showcasing stand-up while enrolled in 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. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She took matters into her own hands, appearing at amateur nights with her friend and uploading uproarious (and distinctly) unconventional comedy videos digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on characters obsessively obsessed with motherhood; a different one portrayed working at a trendy retail outlet as like being trapped in a scary movie. By chance, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and ended up appearing in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a Jewish wake with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her career, she notes, has been people her own age giving her a shot, instead of traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she repeats, adding humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who questioned regarding Sennott earlier will likely be regretting it now. As part of she describes as a “astonishingly complete” development, she has achieved her dream vehicle. Previously she shared content called on LA life online, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about Angelenos juggling advantages of online celebrity (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being suspected of being a intoxicated stealer, and potentially becoming a unreliable pariah). It would be easy to produce a show about online fame that was extremely glamorous—or, more problematic, one that punched down at its subjects. I Love LA avoids both, resulting in a portrait of privileged millennial existence that’s honest about the mess 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
