The performer joins the video call and at once launches into an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, sounding really regretful. Despite being only a bit late, she feels compelled to explain. “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!” Fortunately, in this context, that’s exactly what one hopes to encounter. Additionally, it’s quite unsurprising. Those familiar with the boldly queer and brash project titled Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with her creative partner and appeared in alongside close companion The Bear’s standout—will be aware that she has much to share, whether about roles, relationships, or the pros of creating a high-school combat group. And, by the end her recent eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she carries additional perspectives about the darker side of modern youth (Now in her thirties, she serves as a bridge for this generation, a tale-end millennial with a knack for connecting different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and the actress admits to being a fan, referencing it together with the classic series, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for I Love LA, which details the travails of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also aspiring agent Maia. However, the most significant influence on the moodboard was reserved for the popular sitcom, the show depicting an up-and-coming celebrity navigating in an often-seedy LA scene (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott discovered it during the pandemic, became “hooked”, and resolved to put her own twist 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 concept for this project emerged—partly—from her own, originally fractious, transition to LA and from the saturn return, a frequently discussed occurrence for followers. This represented a phase that included her grasp major life lessons, in her career and individually. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she says. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Starting Out
Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott commenced writing and performing stand-up while enrolled in acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. 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?”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, performing at live shows with her friend and posting hilarious (and distinctly) weird comedy videos digitally. One, Baby Cult, centered on a group of women intensely obsessed with having babies; another envisioned being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being stuck in a thriller. Interestingly, she encountered Seligman through campus film circles and ended up starring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a religious event with shades of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her journey, she notes, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, as opposed to traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, adding humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who had doubts regarding her previously will surely be feeling foolish now. Through she describes as a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she has achieved an ideal role. Previously she shared a clip named on LA life online, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a show about city dwellers juggling the perks of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being labeled as being a drug-addled criminal, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). One might easy to create a series about internet celebrity that was overly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that punched down at its subjects. The series avoids both, creating a representation of privileged young adult living that’s candid about the chaos and the shine.
Empathetic Approach
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” she says. “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
