The performer enters the video call and right away launches into an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, sounding truly remorseful. She is only a couple of minutes delayed, she wants to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, in this context, this is just what one hopes to hear. Moreover, it’s quite expected. Anyone who know the boldly LGBTQ+ and outspoken movie Bottoms—which she penned with Emma Seligman and featured in alongside close companion the talented actress—can already know that she possesses plenty to share, ranging from on identity, intimacy, or the appeal of starting a teen combat group. Plus, after watching her new eight-part program I Love LA, it is clear that she carries even more insights on the darker side of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott serves as an honorary member for this generation, on the cusp with a knack for straddling both generations).
Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and the actress readily acknowledges a fan, naming the show alongside Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as inspirations for I Love LA, which follows the struggles of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion and new talent manager Maia. Perhaps, the biggest influence on concept was reserved for Entourage, that program depicting an up-and-coming Hollywood star succeeding in a corrupt LA scene (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She began viewing it during lockdown, became “hooked”, and chose to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she explains. The inspiration for the series originated—in part—from personal, originally fractious, transition to LA and from her cosmic event, a popular event for followers. It was a time that included her learn some big life lessons, professionally and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she admits. “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 …”
Humble Origins
Raised in Connecticut, Sennott began developing and showcasing humor while studying acting at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” 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. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott seized control, performing at live shows with Ayo and sharing hysterical (and decidedly) weird online content online. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed a group of women obsessively obsessed with pregnancy; another imagined working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being trapped in a thriller. By chance, she met Emma through campus film circles and ended up appearing in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the intense thriller. The central motif of her journey, she explains, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, rather than the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, adding amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Manifesting Dreams
Individuals who had doubts regarding her earlier will certainly be kicking themselves now. In what she calls a “incredibly circular” story, she appears to achieved the perfect project. In 2019 she posted a video titled on LA life on social media, in which she mocked movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a series about city dwellers balancing benefits of internet fame (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your client being labeled as being a intoxicated stealer, and potentially becoming a risky outcast). One might tempting to make a series about internet celebrity that was overly aspirational—or, worse, one that mocked at the characters. I Love LA avoids both, making for a portrait of privileged young adult life that’s candid about the grot and the appeal.
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 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
