The star appears on the video call and immediately starts an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, seeming really apologetic. Although she's only a bit behind, she feels compelled to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, during an interview, this is exactly what one hopes to hear. Moreover, it’s fairly unsurprising. Those who have seen the boldly queer and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—which she co-wrote with Emma Seligman and featured in alongside her friend the talented actress—would be aware that she holds plenty to say, whether on gender, relationships, or the appeal of forming a teen combat group. Furthermore, after watching her latest multi-episode HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that she has further perspectives on the darker side of young adulthood (At 30, she serves as a bridge of the gang, straddling eras with a knack for connecting both generations).
Influences and Artistic Direction
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott is an admirer, naming the show together with the HBO hit, Insecure 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 and aspiring agent Maia. Perhaps, the largest influence on the moodboard went to the popular sitcom, the HBO sitcom about a rising A-list actor succeeding in an often-seedy LA scene (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott discovered it throughout the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and decided to put her own twist on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she notes. The concept for this project originated—to some extent—from personal, at first rocky, relocation to LA and from the astrological phase, a frequently discussed occurrence for followers. This represented a time that included her grasp major insights, in her career and individually. “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. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Starting Out
Raised in the East Coast, the star began developing and showcasing stand-up while studying acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” 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. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott seized control, performing at amateur nights with Edebiri and uploading hysterical (and very) weird online content online. One, Baby Cult, depicted characters obsessively drawn to pregnancy; a different one imagined being employed at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being trapped in a scary movie. Interestingly, she encountered Seligman through campus film circles and ended up appearing in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her journey, she says, has been peers offering opportunities, rather than traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she repeats, continuing with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Individuals who questioned about Sennott earlier will certainly be kicking themselves currently. In what she calls a “astonishingly complete” story, she appears to achieved her dream vehicle. In 2019 she posted a clip titled on LA life on the internet, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a series about Angelenos balancing advantages of online celebrity (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being suspected of being a drug-addled stealer, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). It would be tempting to make a series about internet celebrity that was horribly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that belittled at its subjects. The series does neither, creating a depiction of affluent millennial existence that’s frank about the chaos and the shine.
Empathetic Approach
“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
