The star enters the video call and at once launches into an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, sounding really regretful. Although she's only a bit late, she feels compelled to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, in this context, that’s exactly what you want to hear. Additionally, it’s quite unsurprising. Viewers familiar with the unapologetically queer and brash movie titled Bottoms—which she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and starred in with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—would already know that Sennott has much to share, ranging from on gender, sex, or the pros of starting a high-school combat group. Furthermore, by the end her recent eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, it is clear that she holds further perspectives about the darker side of Gen Z life (As a millennial, she is a bridge to younger audiences, straddling eras with a knack for bridging both generations).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress readily acknowledges an admirer, citing it together with Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as guides for I Love LA, which tracks the journey of a social media star Tallulah and ally who is also new talent manager Maia. However, the largest presence on concept went to the HBO series, that show depicting an up-and-coming celebrity succeeding in an often-seedy entertainment industry (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it during the pandemic, became “hooked”, and chose to add a fresh perspective 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 idea for this project came—partly—from firsthand, initially difficult, relocation to Los Angeles and from her cosmic event, a frequently discussed occurrence for followers. That period marked a time that saw her learn some big insights, work-wise and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she admits. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Humble Origins
Raised in the East Coast, Sennott started writing and performing comedy while studying theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at amateur nights with Edebiri and posting hilarious (and decidedly) weird skits online. One, Baby Cult, centered on characters fetishistically drawn to motherhood; a different one imagined being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being trapped in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and ultimately starring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a Jewish wake with hints of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her path, she explains, has been people her own age offering opportunities, rather than traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, stating humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who had doubts about her previously will surely be kicking themselves today. As part of she describes as a “wild, full-circle” story, she appears to achieved the perfect project. In 2019 she shared a video called on LA life online, in which she mocked movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a series about city dwellers managing benefits of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being suspected of being a drug-addled stealer, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). One might tempting to make a show about digital influence that was overly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at those depicted. The series does neither, creating a depiction of affluent twentysomething existence that’s honest about the mess and the appeal.
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 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
