The star joins the video call and right away starts an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, appearing genuinely apologetic. Although she's only slightly late, she needs to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, during an interview, that’s precisely what you want to encounter. Moreover, it’s pretty expected. Anyone who know the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass movie Bottoms—that she penned with Emma Seligman and appeared in alongside collaborator the talented actress—will already know that she has plenty to discuss, whether on gender, relationships, or the pros of starting a youth combat group. Furthermore, once you finish the recent seasonal HBO series titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she has even more perspectives about the challenges of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott represents an honorary member to younger audiences, on the cusp adept for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and the actress admits to being an admirer, referencing it alongside Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as influences for I Love LA, which follows the struggles of a social media star Tallulah and her friend and aspiring agent portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the largest influence on creative vision belonged to Entourage, that program depicting an emerging A-list actor succeeding in an often-seedy Hollywood (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott started watching it throughout lockdown, became “obsessed”, and resolved to add a fresh perspective on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The idea for the series emerged—in part—from firsthand, originally fractious, move to LA and from her astrological phase, a frequently discussed event for enthusiasts. That period marked a phase that saw her learn significant truths, professionally and individually. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Starting Out
Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott commenced creating and acting stand-up while pursuing performance at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “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. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott seized control, taking the stage at open mics with Ayo and posting hysterical (and distinctly) weird comedy videos digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted several females obsessively drawn to pregnancy; another portrayed working at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being stuck in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Emma through campus film circles and ended up featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a Jewish wake with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her journey, she explains, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, rather than established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, continuing amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who were skeptical about Sennott then will surely be feeling foolish currently. As part of she describes as a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she seems to have manifested an ideal role. A few years back she posted a clip named about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a series about LA residents balancing the perks of digital stardom (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your client being suspected of being a intoxicated thief, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). It would be simple to make a series about digital influence that was extremely glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at the characters. I Love LA does neither, making for a depiction of advantaged millennial life that’s candid about the chaos and the glamour.
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 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
