The performer appears on the online meeting and right away launches into an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, appearing truly remorseful. Despite being only a couple of minutes late, she wants to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, for a writer, that’s precisely what you want to encounter. Additionally, it’s pretty predictable. Those who have seen her boldly openly gay and brash movie titled Bottoms—that she co-wrote with her creative partner and starred in alongside collaborator Ayo Edebiri—can understand that she holds plenty to share, whether on gender, intimacy, or the merits of starting a teen brawl society. Furthermore, by the end the recent multi-episode show titled I Love LA, it is clear that she has even more perspectives regarding the darker side of modern youth (At 30, Sennott represents an honorary member of the gang, on the cusp adept for straddling both generations).
Influences and Artistic Direction
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and Sennott admits to being an admirer, citing the show together with the classic series, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for her series, which follows the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also fledgling agent Maia. However, the largest influence on the moodboard went to the HBO series, the show about an up-and-coming Hollywood star navigating in an often-seedy LA scene (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott began viewing it throughout lockdown, became “captivated”, and decided to add a fresh perspective on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she says. The concept for I Love LA emerged—partly—from firsthand, at first fractious, relocation to Tinseltown and from her cosmic event, a popular phenomenon for astrology heads. It was a time that included her understand some big life lessons, work-wise and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Humble Origins
Growing up in the East Coast, the star began creating and acting 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. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
She seized control, taking the stage at amateur nights with Edebiri and uploading hilarious (and distinctly) weird online content digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed a group of women intensely fixated on having babies; another portrayed working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being trapped in a thriller. Interestingly, she encountered Seligman through campus film circles and ended up starring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a funeral gathering with hints of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her career, she explains, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, instead of established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, continuing amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who were skeptical about Sennott previously will surely be feeling foolish now. Through she calls a “incredibly circular” development, she has achieved an ideal role. In 2019 she shared content titled on LA life on social media, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a series about LA residents managing advantages of digital stardom (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being labeled as being a substance-abusing criminal, and potentially becoming a risky persona non grata). Some could simple to create a program about internet celebrity that was extremely aspirational—or, worse, one that belittled at those depicted. I Love LA steers clear of each, making for a portrait of affluent twentysomething living that’s frank about the mess and the shine.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
