The star joins the digital interview and at once begins an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, seeming genuinely regretful. Despite being only a couple of minutes delayed, she feels compelled to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, in this context, this is just what you want to experience. Moreover, it’s fairly expected. Those who know the boldly openly gay and outspoken film Bottoms—which she collaborated on with the director and featured in alongside her friend the talented actress—would be aware that Sennott holds plenty to share, be it about identity, relationships, or the pros of forming a youth fight club. Plus, by the end her new seasonal program I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she holds additional thoughts on the challenges of young adulthood (At 30, she serves as a relatable figure of the gang, a tale-end millennial with a knack for straddling both generations).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott readily acknowledges enthusiastic, naming the show alongside the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as guides for the project, which details the journey of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also fledgling representative Maia. Perhaps, the most significant influence on the moodboard belonged to the popular sitcom, that HBO sitcom focusing on an up-and-coming celebrity succeeding in a corrupt Hollywood (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She began viewing it during the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and chose to add a fresh perspective on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she notes. The concept for this project originated—to some extent—from firsthand, at first rocky, move to LA and from the saturn return, a popular event for astrology heads. It was a time that included her understand major life lessons, in her career and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Starting Out
Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott commenced developing and showcasing stand-up while enrolled in performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott decided to act independently, performing at live shows with her friend and uploading uproarious (and distinctly) unconventional skits on the internet. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted a group of women obsessively obsessed with pregnancy; a different one imagined being employed at the brand Hollister as similar to being trapped in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and ended up featuring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a religious event with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her journey, she says, has been peers offering opportunities, as opposed to traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, adding with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who were skeptical regarding Sennott previously will surely be feeling foolish now. In what she describes as a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she has created her dream vehicle. In 2019 she posted content called “it’s LA” on social media, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a show about LA residents balancing benefits of internet fame (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your client being suspected of being a intoxicated criminal, and possibly becoming a risky persona non grata). It would be simple to produce a show about online fame that was overly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at those depicted. This show avoids both, making for a depiction of advantaged twentysomething existence that’s candid about the chaos and the glamour.
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
