The performer joins the video call and immediately launches into an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, seeming really apologetic. She is only slightly late, she feels compelled to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, during an interview, this is just what you want to encounter. Moreover, it’s fairly predictable. Viewers who have seen her boldly LGBTQ+ and brash project Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with the director and featured in alongside close companion The Bear’s standout—would already know that Sennott has a lot to share, whether on gender, intimacy, or the pros of starting a teen brawl society. Furthermore, once you finish her latest eight-part program I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star has further insights regarding the struggles of modern youth (Now in her thirties, Sennott represents an honorary member to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial adept for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and Sennott is enthusiastic, naming it together with the HBO hit, Insecure and the innovative program as influences for the project, which follows the travails of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion and fledgling representative portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the biggest spot on the moodboard went to the popular sitcom, that program about a rising A-list actor succeeding in a gritty entertainment industry (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She began viewing it throughout lockdown, became “captivated”, and chose to create a new version 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 explains. The concept for the series came—to some extent—from firsthand, at first rocky, relocation to LA and from the saturn return, a popular occurrence for enthusiasts. That period marked a phase that saw her learn major life lessons, professionally and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Starting Out
Brought up in the East Coast, Sennott began developing and showcasing comedy while enrolled in theatre 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. “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott decided to act independently, appearing at amateur nights with her friend and uploading hilarious (and distinctly) unconventional online content digitally. One, Baby Cult, followed characters intensely drawn to pregnancy; another envisioned being employed at a trendy retail outlet as like being stuck in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Seligman through the university’s film scene and ultimately appearing in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her career, she explains, has been people her own age giving her a shot, instead of established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, adding amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who questioned about her earlier will certainly be feeling foolish currently. In what she labels a “astonishingly complete” story, she has manifested an ideal role. A few years back she shared content titled on LA life online, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about city dwellers juggling benefits of digital stardom (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being suspected of being a intoxicated criminal, and possibly becoming a unreliable outcast). One might simple to produce a program about digital influence that was extremely idealized—or, more problematic, one that mocked at the characters. I Love LA steers clear of each, making for a portrait of privileged millennial living that’s frank about the grot and the glamour.
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
