The performer appears on the digital interview and right away starts an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, seeming truly apologetic. Despite being only a couple of minutes behind, she feels compelled 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, during an interview, that’s precisely what one hopes to experience. Moreover, it’s quite predictable. Those who have seen the boldly openly gay and outspoken film titled Bottoms—which she penned with the director and appeared in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—would understand that she possesses a lot to discuss, ranging from on identity, intimacy, or the appeal of forming a teen fight club. And, by the end her latest seasonal show titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she holds further perspectives about the struggles of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott serves as a relatable figure to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial skilled for connecting both generations).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and the actress admits to being an admirer, naming the show together with the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as influences for her series, which tracks the travails of a social media star Tallulah and ally who is also new talent manager Maia. Perhaps, the biggest spot on concept was reserved for the HBO series, the HBO sitcom depicting an up-and-coming celebrity succeeding in a gritty Hollywood (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She began viewing it throughout COVID-19, became “hooked”, and resolved to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she notes. The idea for I Love LA came—to some extent—from her own, at first fractious, move to Los Angeles and from her saturn return, a frequently discussed phenomenon for astrology heads. This represented an era that saw her learn some big life lessons, in her career and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she admits. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Humble Origins
Brought up in New England, Sennott commenced writing and performing stand-up while enrolled in performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she explains. “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?”
She decided to act independently, taking the stage at live shows with Edebiri and sharing hysterical (and very) bizarre comedy videos on the internet. One, Baby Cult, followed several females obsessively fixated on pregnancy; another envisioned working at the brand Hollister as like being trapped in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Seligman through the university’s film scene and eventually appearing in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her journey, she says, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, as opposed to the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, adding humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who were skeptical regarding Sennott previously will surely be regretting it now. In what she calls a “wild, full-circle” development, she has manifested the perfect project. In 2019 she shared content named about Los Angeles on social media, in which she parodied movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a series about LA residents balancing advantages of internet fame (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being labeled as being a drug-addled stealer, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). Some could easy to produce a program about internet celebrity that was overly idealized—or, more problematic, one that punched down at those depicted. The series does neither, resulting in a representation of privileged young adult living that’s frank about the grot and the glamour.
Balanced Perspective
“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
