The performer enters the video call and right away launches into an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, appearing genuinely regretful. She is only a bit delayed, she needs to justify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, for a writer, this is precisely what you want to experience. Moreover, it’s fairly predictable. Viewers who have seen her boldly LGBTQ+ and outspoken film titled Bottoms—that she penned with the director and starred in with collaborator The Bear’s standout—will already know that she has a lot to say, be it on roles, intimacy, or the pros of forming a teen combat group. Furthermore, after watching her latest multi-episode show titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she carries even more perspectives about the challenges of modern youth (As a millennial, Sennott is a bridge to younger audiences, on the cusp with a knack for straddling different age groups).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and the actress readily acknowledges an admirer, naming the show in addition to the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for the project, which follows the journey of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and new agent portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the most significant influence on the moodboard was reserved for the popular sitcom, the HBO sitcom focusing on an emerging Hollywood star making his way in a corrupt entertainment industry (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott began viewing it throughout lockdown, became “obsessed”, and decided to create a new version 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 inspiration for I Love LA came—in part—from personal, at first difficult, transition to Los Angeles and from her saturn return, a frequently discussed event for enthusiasts. It was a phase that saw her understand major insights, in her career and personally. “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…”
Starting Out
Raised in New England, Sennott started writing and performing stand-up while pursuing performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “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. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She took matters into her own hands, appearing at amateur nights with Edebiri and posting hysterical (and very) weird online content digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted characters fetishistically drawn to motherhood; a different one envisioned working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being trapped in a thriller. By chance, she connected with Seligman through campus film circles and ultimately appearing in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her journey, she notes, has been contemporaries supporting her, instead of established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, adding amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who were skeptical about her previously will certainly be kicking themselves currently. Through she calls a “wild, full-circle” development, she has created the perfect project. A few years back she shared a video called on LA life on the internet, in which she lampooned movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a series about city dwellers balancing the perks of digital stardom (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being suspected of being a drug-addled thief, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). It would be simple to produce a program about digital influence that was horribly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at the characters. This show avoids both, creating a representation of advantaged young adult existence that’s candid about the chaos and the glamour.
Empathetic Approach
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
