The performer joins the online meeting and at once launches into an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, sounding truly remorseful. She is only slightly 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!” Fortunately, during an interview, that’s precisely what you want to experience. Additionally, it’s pretty unsurprising. Those who have seen her fearlessly queer and brash film Bottoms—that she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and featured in alongside close companion the talented actress—can be aware that she has much to share, be it about identity, intimacy, or the merits of forming a youth fight club. Plus, by the end the recent eight-part program I Love LA, it is clear that the star has further thoughts about the challenges of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott serves as a bridge to younger audiences, straddling eras with a knack for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott is enthusiastic, referencing it together with Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as influences for I Love LA, which tracks the struggles of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also fledgling agent portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the biggest presence on the moodboard belonged to the HBO series, the HBO sitcom depicting an up-and-coming Hollywood star succeeding in a corrupt LA scene (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott began viewing it amid COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and decided to add a fresh perspective on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she says. The concept for I Love LA came—in part—from personal, at first difficult, relocation to Los Angeles and from the astrological phase, a much-talked-about occurrence for followers. This represented a phase that involved her learn major insights, professionally and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she admits. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Humble Origins
Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott started creating and acting stand-up while enrolled in theatre 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 states. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott seized control, appearing at open mics with Edebiri and posting uproarious (and distinctly) weird skits digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on several females fetishistically obsessed with having babies; another portrayed working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being caught in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she met Emma through the university’s film scene and ended up featuring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a religious event with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her career, she says, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, as opposed to established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, adding humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who had doubts about Sennott previously will surely be regretting it today. In what she describes as a “wild, full-circle” development, she seems to have achieved her dream vehicle. In 2019 she shared a video titled on LA life on social media, in which she mocked film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a comedy about city dwellers managing advantages of internet fame (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being labeled as being a drug-addled thief, and perhaps becoming a unreliable outcast). It would be easy to make a show about digital influence that was overly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at its subjects. The series does neither, making for a depiction of privileged young adult life that’s frank about the chaos and the glamour.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” she comments. “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
