The performer appears on the video call and at once begins an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, seeming genuinely regretful. Although she's only a couple of minutes late, she wants to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, for a writer, this is precisely what you want to experience. Besides, it’s pretty predictable. Viewers who know the unapologetically openly gay and unapologetically crass movie Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with her creative partner and starred in together with close companion Ayo Edebiri—would already know that Sennott has plenty to say, whether about roles, relationships, or the merits of forming a teen fight club. And, by the end the new seasonal HBO series I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she holds additional perspectives on the challenges of modern youth (At 30, she serves as a bridge of the gang, on the cusp with a knack for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and the actress admits to being enthusiastic, citing it alongside Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as inspirations for I Love LA, which tracks the struggles of a social media star Tallulah and close companion who is also new agent portrayed by Sennott. However, the most significant spot on the moodboard went to the HBO series, that show depicting an emerging celebrity making his way in an often-seedy Hollywood (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She discovered it throughout COVID-19, became “hooked”, and chose to add a fresh perspective on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The idea for this project came—partly—from personal, initially difficult, transition to Tinseltown and from the astrological phase, a popular occurrence for enthusiasts. It was a time that saw her learn some big insights, in her career and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Humble Origins
Raised in New England, Sennott started creating and acting humor while pursuing acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “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. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
She decided to act independently, appearing at amateur nights with Ayo and uploading hysterical (and very) weird comedy videos on the internet. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, followed a group of women fetishistically fixated on having babies; another portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being stuck in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Emma through campus film circles and ultimately featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the intense thriller. The central motif of her career, she says, has been people her own age giving her a shot, rather than established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, stating amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who were skeptical about Sennott then will surely be regretting it today. Through she calls a “astonishingly complete” story, she appears to manifested her dream vehicle. A few years back she posted a video titled about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she mocked film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a comedy about city dwellers balancing advantages of internet fame (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being suspected of being a substance-abusing thief, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). One might tempting to create a program about internet celebrity that was overly idealized—or, worse, one that mocked at the characters. This show does neither, creating a depiction of advantaged millennial life that’s frank about the grot and the glamour.
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 observes. “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
