The performer appears on the digital interview and immediately begins an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, seeming truly apologetic. Despite being only a bit delayed, she wants to justify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, in this context, that’s just what you want to experience. Besides, it’s fairly unsurprising. Anyone who know the fearlessly queer and brash movie Bottoms—which Sennott penned with Emma Seligman and appeared in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—would understand that she possesses a lot to share, be it on identity, relationships, or the appeal of creating a high-school combat group. Furthermore, after watching her new seasonal HBO series I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she has further perspectives on the struggles of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott represents a bridge for this generation, a tale-end millennial skilled for straddling different age groups).
Influences and Creative Vision
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and the actress admits to being an admirer, naming the show alongside the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as inspirations for her series, which details the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion and fledgling talent manager Maia. Notably, the largest spot on concept belonged to the HBO series, the show depicting an up-and-coming celebrity navigating in a corrupt LA scene (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it amid COVID-19, 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 explains. The inspiration for this project emerged—partly—from personal, at first fractious, relocation to Tinseltown and from her saturn return, a popular phenomenon for astrology heads. That period marked a time that saw her learn some big insights, work-wise and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Starting Out
Brought up in Connecticut, the star commenced creating and acting stand-up while studying acting at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. 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?”
She took matters into her own hands, appearing at live shows with her friend and uploading uproarious (and distinctly) weird skits digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted a group of women intensely fixated on having babies; another portrayed working at the brand Hollister as akin to being trapped in a scary movie. By chance, she met Emma through campus film circles and eventually starring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a religious event with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her career, she notes, has been people her own age supporting her, as opposed to the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she repeats, adding with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who were skeptical about Sennott earlier will likely be regretting it today. Through she calls a “wild, full-circle” development, she appears to achieved an ideal role. A few years back she posted content titled “it’s LA” on social media, in which she parodied film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a series about LA residents juggling benefits of online celebrity (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your associate being suspected of being a drug-addled criminal, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). It would be simple to produce a show about internet celebrity that was horribly aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at its subjects. This show does neither, resulting in a representation of privileged millennial living that’s honest about the mess and the glamour.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
