The star appears on the online meeting and right away begins an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, sounding truly apologetic. Despite being only slightly late, she feels compelled to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, for a writer, this is exactly what you want to experience. Additionally, it’s pretty unsurprising. Those who have seen her fearlessly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass movie titled Bottoms—that she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and featured in together with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—can already know that Sennott has plenty to share, whether on roles, relationships, or the appeal of creating a youth combat group. And, by the end her new seasonal program I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star has additional insights on the darker side of Gen Z life (As a millennial, Sennott serves as a relatable figure of the gang, straddling eras with a knack for connecting different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, naming the show alongside the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as guides for the project, which details the journey of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also aspiring agent Maia. Perhaps, the most significant presence on concept belonged to Entourage, that HBO sitcom focusing on a rising celebrity navigating in a corrupt LA scene (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott started watching it amid lockdown, became “hooked”, and chose to put her own twist 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 notes. The idea for the series emerged—to some extent—from personal, at first difficult, move to Los Angeles and from the saturn return, a much-talked-about occurrence for enthusiasts. It was an era that involved her grasp some big insights, work-wise and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Humble Origins
Growing up in New England, Sennott started writing and performing stand-up while pursuing acting at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
She took matters into her own hands, performing at live shows with Edebiri and posting hilarious (and very) bizarre skits digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on characters fetishistically drawn to having babies; another imagined being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being trapped in a scary movie. By chance, she met Seligman through campus film circles and eventually featuring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a religious event with echoes of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her journey, she explains, has been peers offering opportunities, as opposed to established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, stating humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Individuals who were skeptical about her previously will surely be regretting it today. As part of she calls a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she appears to manifested the perfect project. A few years back she uploaded a clip titled about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she lampooned film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a show about Angelenos balancing advantages of digital stardom (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being accused of being a intoxicated criminal, and potentially becoming a unreliable outcast). One might tempting to create a show about online fame that was horribly aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at the characters. This show does neither, resulting in a portrait of affluent young adult existence that’s honest about the grot and the shine.
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
