The actress and writer on her side-splitting show about the grotty appeal of today's youth life
The performer enters the video call and immediately starts an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, appearing truly regretful. She is only a couple of minutes late, she wants to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, in this context, this is exactly what you want to hear. Additionally, it’s fairly predictable. Anyone familiar with her fearlessly queer and brash film titled Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with the director and appeared in alongside close companion the talented actress—would understand that she possesses plenty to discuss, be it on identity, sex, or the pros of creating a high-school brawl society. Furthermore, after watching her new seasonal show titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries further thoughts regarding the challenges of young adulthood (At 30, she is an honorary member of the gang, on the cusp adept for straddling different age groups).
Influences and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott is a fan, naming the show alongside the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as inspirations for the project, which tracks the journey of online personality Tallulah and close companion who is also fledgling talent manager Sennott’s character. Notably, the largest presence on creative vision belonged to the HBO series, the HBO sitcom about a rising celebrity succeeding in a gritty LA scene (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She began viewing it during the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and chose 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 says. The concept for I Love LA came—partly—from her own, originally difficult, relocation to Los Angeles and from the cosmic event, a popular phenomenon for astrology heads. That period marked a phase that involved her learn major truths, in her career and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Humble Origins
Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott commenced creating and acting humor while pursuing acting 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. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott decided to act independently, appearing at live shows with Edebiri and uploading hysterical (and distinctly) bizarre comedy videos online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women intensely fixated on pregnancy; another envisioned being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being stuck in a horror film. By chance, she encountered Emma through campus film circles and ultimately appearing in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a religious event with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her path, she explains, has been peers giving her a shot, as opposed to established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, continuing amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who were skeptical about Sennott earlier will certainly be kicking themselves today. As part of she describes as a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she seems to have created an ideal role. A few years back she shared a clip named on LA life online, in which she mocked movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a series about Angelenos balancing advantages of online celebrity (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your client being suspected of being a drug-addled criminal, and perhaps becoming a risky outcast). It would be easy to make a series about digital influence that was overly glamorous—or, worse, one that mocked at the characters. The series does neither, making for a representation of affluent twentysomething existence that’s frank about the chaos and the appeal.
Empathetic Approach
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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