The star enters the online meeting and immediately starts an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, appearing really remorseful. Although she's only a couple of minutes behind, she needs to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, during an interview, this is exactly what you want to hear. Besides, it’s fairly unsurprising. Anyone familiar with the fearlessly queer and unapologetically crass project Bottoms—that Sennott penned with the director and appeared in with collaborator The Bear’s standout—can already know that Sennott possesses a lot to discuss, ranging from about identity, sex, or the appeal of starting a high-school fight club. Plus, after watching the new eight-part show I Love LA, viewers realize that the star carries further thoughts about the struggles of young adulthood (At 30, she represents a relatable figure for this generation, on the cusp with a knack for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and Sennott readily acknowledges enthusiastic, naming the show in addition to the classic series, Insecure and the innovative program as influences for the project, which follows the struggles of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion and aspiring talent manager Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the most significant spot on the moodboard went to the HBO series, the HBO sitcom depicting an up-and-coming A-list actor navigating in a corrupt LA scene (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She discovered it throughout COVID-19, became “hooked”, and chose to add a fresh perspective on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she notes. The inspiration for the series originated—in part—from her own, at first difficult, move to LA and from her cosmic event, a popular event for enthusiasts. That period marked a phase that involved her understand major life lessons, work-wise and in private life. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “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 …”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in the East Coast, the star commenced developing and showcasing stand-up while pursuing performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott seized control, taking the stage at amateur nights with Edebiri and sharing uproarious (and decidedly) weird comedy videos online. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed characters obsessively drawn to having babies; another envisioned working at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being caught in a scary movie. By chance, she connected with Seligman through NYU’s movie community and eventually appearing in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her path, she notes, has been people her own age offering opportunities, instead of established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, stating amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Those who had doubts regarding her then will surely be feeling foolish today. In what she describes as a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she has achieved her dream vehicle. In 2019 she posted a video called on LA life online, in which she mocked film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about Angelenos juggling benefits of internet fame (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being accused of being a substance-abusing thief, and perhaps becoming a unreliable outcast). One might easy to create a show about internet celebrity that was horribly idealized—or, worse, one that belittled at the characters. The series does neither, making for a representation of advantaged young adult life that’s honest 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
