The star appears on the video call and at once begins an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, appearing genuinely apologetic. Despite being only a bit late, she feels compelled to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, in this context, this is precisely what is ideal to encounter. Moreover, it’s pretty unsurprising. Anyone who know the unapologetically openly gay and outspoken movie titled Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and featured in alongside collaborator Ayo Edebiri—would already know that she possesses plenty to discuss, be it on gender, intimacy, or the pros of creating a high-school fight club. Furthermore, once you finish the new eight-part show titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she holds even more thoughts regarding the darker side of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, she serves as a bridge for this generation, a tale-end millennial with a knack for connecting different age groups).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and the actress admits to being a fan, citing it alongside Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as inspirations for I Love LA, which tracks the travails of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and fledgling talent manager portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the biggest influence on concept went to the popular sitcom, the show about a rising A-list actor making his way in a corrupt Hollywood (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott began viewing it amid the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and chose to add a fresh perspective 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 inspiration for I Love LA emerged—in part—from personal, originally fractious, move to Tinseltown and from the cosmic event, a frequently discussed phenomenon for followers. That period marked a time that involved her grasp major insights, professionally and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Humble Origins
Brought up in the East Coast, Sennott started creating and acting stand-up while studying acting at NYU’s Tisch. “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. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
She seized control, taking the stage at amateur nights with Ayo and uploading uproarious (and distinctly) bizarre online content online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women obsessively drawn to pregnancy; a different one envisioned being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being stuck in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Seligman through campus film circles and ultimately appearing in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her career, she says, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, rather than the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, adding amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who had doubts regarding Sennott previously will certainly be regretting it currently. Through she describes as a “astonishingly complete” story, she seems to have manifested the perfect project. In 2019 she uploaded content called on LA life online, in which she parodied film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a show about Angelenos balancing benefits of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your friend being accused of being a drug-addled stealer, and potentially becoming a unreliable persona non grata). Some could easy to produce a series about online fame that was extremely aspirational—or, more problematic, one that punched down at its subjects. This show does neither, making for a depiction of affluent twentysomething existence that’s frank about the mess and the shine.
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
