The performer appears on the online meeting and right away begins an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, appearing truly regretful. She is only a bit late, she feels compelled to clarify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, for a writer, this is precisely what is ideal to experience. Additionally, it’s fairly expected. Viewers who have seen her fearlessly LGBTQ+ and brash movie titled Bottoms—which she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and appeared in together with her friend the talented actress—can understand that she has plenty to discuss, be it about gender, relationships, or the appeal of creating a teen fight club. And, by the end her recent eight-part show I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she has even more thoughts regarding the challenges of young adulthood (At 30, she is an honorary member for this generation, straddling eras adept for bridging both generations).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and Sennott admits to being a fan, citing the show together with the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for I Love LA, which follows the travails of an influencer Tallulah and ally who is also aspiring talent manager portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the most significant spot on the moodboard belonged to Entourage, that program depicting an up-and-coming celebrity navigating in a gritty entertainment industry (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott started watching it throughout lockdown, became “obsessed”, and resolved to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she says. The idea for the series originated—to some extent—from firsthand, originally difficult, transition to Tinseltown and from the saturn return, a frequently discussed event for followers. That period marked a time that saw her learn major truths, professionally and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “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
Growing up in the East Coast, Sennott started developing and showcasing humor while enrolled in theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
She seized control, appearing at open mics with Edebiri and uploading uproarious (and distinctly) weird comedy videos digitally. One, Baby Cult, followed a group of women fetishistically obsessed with motherhood; another envisioned being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being trapped in a thriller. Interestingly, she met Seligman through campus film circles and ended up appearing in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her path, she notes, has been people her own age offering opportunities, rather than established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, stating with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who were skeptical regarding her then will surely be regretting it currently. In what she describes as a “astonishingly complete” development, she seems to have achieved the perfect project. A few years back she posted a video titled “it’s LA” online, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a comedy about Angelenos juggling advantages of internet fame (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being suspected of being a substance-abusing criminal, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). Some could simple to produce a show about online fame that was overly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at the characters. This show does neither, resulting in a depiction of privileged young adult existence that’s candid about the mess 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 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
