The performer enters the online meeting and at once launches into an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, sounding really apologetic. Although she's only slightly delayed, she feels compelled to explain. “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 just what one hopes to hear. Additionally, it’s pretty predictable. Those who have seen the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and outspoken film Bottoms—that she penned with Emma Seligman and featured in alongside collaborator Ayo Edebiri—will be aware that she possesses a lot to share, be it on identity, sex, or the merits of forming a high-school brawl society. And, once you finish the new eight-part show titled I Love LA, it is clear that she carries additional insights on the struggles of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott is a bridge to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial with a knack for bridging different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress admits to being enthusiastic, referencing the show alongside the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for I Love LA, which tracks the struggles of an influencer Tallulah and her friend who is also new representative Sennott’s character. Notably, the largest influence on the moodboard was reserved for the HBO series, the program about an emerging A-list actor navigating in a gritty LA scene (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She discovered it amid COVID-19, became “captivated”, and decided to create a new version on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she explains. The idea for the series emerged—in part—from firsthand, at first rocky, transition to LA and from her saturn return, a popular occurrence for astrology heads. It was a time that saw her grasp some big truths, in her career and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Early Beginnings
Raised in the East Coast, the star started writing and performing comedy while studying acting at a prestigious arts school. “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. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott decided to act independently, performing at open mics with her friend and sharing hilarious (and decidedly) unconventional skits digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted characters intensely drawn to pregnancy; a different one portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being stuck in a horror film. By chance, she connected with Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up featuring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a funeral gathering with shades of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her path, she notes, has been peers giving her a shot, rather than traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she repeats, stating amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who were skeptical about Sennott previously will certainly be feeling foolish now. Through she describes as a “incredibly circular” story, she seems to have created the perfect project. A few years back she shared content named about Los Angeles online, in which she parodied film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about Angelenos managing advantages of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being labeled as being a drug-addled thief, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). It would be tempting to create a show about internet celebrity that was overly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that mocked at its subjects. This show steers clear of each, resulting in a portrait of privileged young adult life that’s candid about the grot and the glamour.
Empathetic Approach
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” she observes. “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
