The actress and writer on her uproarious show portraying that grotty allure of today's youth lifestyle
The performer enters the digital interview and right away launches into an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, seeming really remorseful. Despite being only a couple of minutes delayed, she needs to clarify. “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!” Thankfully, during an interview, this is just what one hopes to hear. Additionally, it’s pretty unsurprising. Viewers who have seen her boldly openly gay and brash project Bottoms—that Sennott penned with the director and starred in together with her friend The Bear’s standout—can understand that Sennott holds plenty to share, whether about roles, sex, or the appeal of creating a teen fight club. Plus, once you finish her latest multi-episode program I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds further insights about the struggles of young adulthood (As a millennial, she is an honorary member for this generation, straddling eras with a knack for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Artistic Direction
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and the actress readily acknowledges a fan, referencing it alongside the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as influences for I Love LA, which tracks the struggles of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and fledgling agent portrayed by Sennott. However, the biggest spot on creative vision was reserved for the HBO series, the HBO sitcom about an emerging A-list actor succeeding in an often-seedy entertainment industry (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott started watching it amid COVID-19, became “hooked”, and resolved to add a fresh perspective 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 says. The idea for I Love LA came—to some extent—from her own, originally rocky, transition to LA and from her cosmic event, a frequently discussed occurrence for astrology heads. It was a phase that included her understand major life lessons, work-wise and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “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
Raised in New England, the star commenced creating and acting stand-up while enrolled in theatre 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 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 decided to act independently, appearing at live shows with Edebiri and sharing uproarious (and very) weird online content on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women intensely drawn to having babies; a different one envisioned working at the brand Hollister as akin to being trapped in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Emma through the university’s film scene and eventually starring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a funeral gathering with shades of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her path, she notes, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, rather than established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, stating with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Anyone who were skeptical about her earlier will certainly be regretting it today. Through she describes as a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she appears to created her dream vehicle. In 2019 she uploaded content titled “it’s LA” online, in which she parodied film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a series about city dwellers juggling the perks of digital stardom (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being suspected of being a drug-addled criminal, and potentially becoming a unreliable pariah). One might easy to make a show about internet celebrity that was extremely aspirational—or, worse, one that belittled at its subjects. This show avoids both, making for a portrait of privileged young adult living that’s candid about the chaos and the glamour.
Nuanced Portrayal
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” 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