The performer joins the online meeting and immediately begins an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, seeming truly remorseful. Although she's only a bit delayed, she wants to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, for a writer, this is precisely what you want to experience. Additionally, it’s fairly unsurprising. Anyone who have seen her unapologetically queer and unapologetically crass project Bottoms—which she collaborated on with the director and starred in with close companion the talented actress—would already know that Sennott has a lot to say, whether on roles, relationships, or the appeal of creating a high-school combat group. And, after watching her recent eight-part program titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries further thoughts on the struggles of modern youth (As a millennial, Sennott represents a relatable figure of the gang, straddling eras adept for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott admits to being a fan, referencing it together with Sex and the City, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as influences for the project, which follows the travails of a social media star Tallulah and close companion and fledgling representative portrayed by Sennott. However, the largest presence on the moodboard was reserved for the HBO series, that program about an emerging A-list actor succeeding in an often-seedy entertainment industry (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She discovered it amid the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and resolved to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she explains. The inspiration for the series came—partly—from her own, originally fractious, move to Los Angeles and from the astrological phase, a frequently discussed occurrence for followers. That period marked a phase that saw her understand major life lessons, work-wise and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott began writing and performing humor while studying performance at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott seized control, performing at live shows with Edebiri and uploading hilarious (and decidedly) bizarre online content on the internet. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, followed a group of women fetishistically drawn to motherhood; a different one imagined being employed at a trendy retail outlet as like being caught in a horror film. By chance, she connected with Emma through NYU’s movie community and ultimately appearing in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her journey, she says, has been peers supporting her, rather than established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, adding amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who had doubts about her earlier will certainly be feeling foolish now. As part of she labels a “astonishingly complete” development, she seems to have manifested her dream vehicle. In 2019 she shared a video called about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she mocked movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a series about Angelenos managing advantages of digital stardom (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your friend being accused of being a substance-abusing criminal, and possibly becoming a risky outcast). It would be easy to create a series about online fame that was extremely glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at the characters. I Love LA steers clear of each, creating a portrait of advantaged young adult existence that’s frank about the chaos and the shine.
Balanced Perspective
“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
