The performer appears on the video call and immediately begins an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, sounding truly apologetic. Although she's only a couple of minutes behind, she wants to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, during an interview, this is precisely what is ideal to hear. Additionally, it’s quite unsurprising. Viewers familiar with the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and outspoken film Bottoms—which Sennott penned with Emma Seligman and starred in with her friend the talented actress—would understand that Sennott possesses a lot to share, whether about gender, sex, or the pros of creating a youth fight club. And, by the end her latest eight-part show titled I Love LA, viewers realize that the star holds additional thoughts on the darker side of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, Sennott represents an honorary member for this generation, on the cusp with a knack for straddling both generations).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott is a fan, citing the show together with the HBO hit, Insecure and Atlanta as influences for her series, which details the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also fledgling agent portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the biggest influence on the moodboard was reserved for the HBO series, the program depicting a rising celebrity making his way in an often-seedy entertainment industry (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott started watching it amid lockdown, became “hooked”, and decided to create a new version 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 idea for the series came—partly—from firsthand, at first rocky, transition to LA and from her saturn return, a much-talked-about occurrence for followers. It was a time that involved her learn some big truths, in her career and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott began developing and showcasing humor while enrolled in 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 states. “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. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
She decided to act independently, appearing at amateur nights with her friend and uploading hysterical (and decidedly) unconventional comedy videos digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, followed several females fetishistically drawn to pregnancy; another envisioned being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being caught in a scary movie. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up appearing in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the intense thriller. The central motif of her path, she says, has been people her own age supporting her, instead of the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, continuing humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who questioned about Sennott earlier will surely be regretting it today. Through she labels a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she has manifested her dream vehicle. Previously she posted a video called on LA life on the internet, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a series about Angelenos managing benefits of internet fame (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your client being accused of being a substance-abusing criminal, and possibly becoming a unreliable outcast). Some could tempting to produce a series about online fame that was horribly idealized—or, worse, one that punched down at the characters. This show does neither, creating a portrait of affluent twentysomething living that’s frank about the mess and the shine.
Balanced Perspective
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” 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
