The star enters the digital interview and right away starts an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, seeming truly apologetic. Although she's only a couple of minutes late, she feels compelled to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, for a writer, this is precisely what one hopes to experience. Besides, it’s pretty expected. Those who know the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass movie Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with her creative partner and starred in together with her friend the talented actress—will understand that she possesses a lot to share, whether on identity, sex, or the pros of starting a high-school combat group. And, once you finish her new eight-part show I Love LA, it is clear that she holds further perspectives about the struggles of young adulthood (At 30, Sennott is a bridge for this generation, a tale-end millennial adept for bridging different age groups).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and the actress readily acknowledges an admirer, referencing it in addition to the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as guides for I Love LA, which details the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also new talent manager portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the largest influence on the moodboard went to the HBO series, the show depicting an emerging celebrity navigating in a gritty entertainment industry (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it during the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and chose to create a new version on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The concept for the series originated—to some extent—from firsthand, initially rocky, transition to Tinseltown and from the cosmic event, a popular phenomenon for enthusiasts. That period marked a time that involved her learn significant truths, work-wise and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” 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…”
Humble Origins
Raised in the East Coast, the star started creating and acting humor while enrolled in performance at NYU’s Tisch. “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. 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 seized control, taking the stage at open mics with her friend and posting uproarious (and very) bizarre comedy videos on the internet. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed several females fetishistically drawn to motherhood; a different one portrayed being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being caught in a horror film. Interestingly, she encountered Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ultimately appearing in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of the intense thriller. The big theme of her path, she says, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, as opposed to traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, adding with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Manifesting Dreams
Individuals who had doubts regarding her earlier will likely be regretting it today. Through she labels a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she has created the perfect project. In 2019 she uploaded a video titled on LA life online, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a series about LA residents managing the perks of internet fame (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being accused of being a intoxicated thief, and potentially becoming a unreliable pariah). One might simple to make a show about digital influence that was horribly aspirational—or, worse, one that mocked at those depicted. I Love LA does neither, creating a representation of advantaged twentysomething life that’s candid about the grot and the appeal.
Balanced Perspective
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” she says. “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
