The performer joins the video call and right away begins an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, sounding truly apologetic. Despite being only slightly behind, she feels compelled to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, during an interview, this is precisely what is ideal to experience. Besides, it’s fairly unsurprising. Anyone who know the boldly LGBTQ+ and brash movie titled Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with her creative partner and starred in together with close companion the talented actress—can already know that she holds much to say, be it about gender, intimacy, or the appeal of starting a high-school fight club. Plus, by the end the new eight-part show I Love LA, it is clear that the star has even more thoughts about the struggles of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott represents a bridge to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial with a knack for connecting different age groups).
Influences and Creative Vision
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, citing the show together with the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as inspirations for I Love LA, which details the struggles of online personality Tallulah and her friend and new representative Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the largest spot on concept went to the HBO series, that show about an emerging Hollywood star making his way in a corrupt LA scene (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She started watching it during lockdown, became “captivated”, and resolved to add a fresh perspective on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she notes. The idea for this project came—to some extent—from personal, at first rocky, relocation to Los Angeles and from her cosmic event, a popular occurrence for astrology heads. That period marked a time that saw her learn some big truths, work-wise and in private life. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Starting Out
Raised in Connecticut, Sennott began creating and acting stand-up while pursuing performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, appearing at amateur nights with Ayo and sharing hilarious (and distinctly) bizarre skits online. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted characters fetishistically fixated on having babies; another imagined working at the brand Hollister as similar to being caught in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Seligman through campus film circles and ultimately appearing in her initial project, Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a funeral gathering with shades of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her journey, she says, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, instead of established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, stating humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who had doubts about her earlier will likely be kicking themselves today. In what she describes as a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she has created the perfect project. Previously she uploaded a video called on LA life on the internet, in which she mocked movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a show about city dwellers managing the perks of internet fame (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being labeled as being a drug-addled thief, and perhaps becoming a unreliable persona non grata). One might easy to produce a show about online fame that was extremely aspirational—or, worse, one that punched down at its subjects. The series avoids both, making for a portrait of affluent twentysomething living that’s frank about the chaos and the shine.
Empathetic Approach
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” 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
