The star appears on the video call and immediately begins an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, sounding really apologetic. Despite being only slightly late, she feels compelled to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, during an interview, this is precisely what you want to hear. Moreover, it’s pretty expected. Those who know the unapologetically queer and outspoken movie titled Bottoms—which Sennott penned with her creative partner and starred in together with collaborator The Bear’s standout—can already know that she holds much to say, be it about identity, sex, or the appeal of creating a teen combat group. And, by the end her new multi-episode show I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star has even more perspectives regarding the struggles of young adulthood (At 30, she is a relatable figure of the gang, straddling eras skilled for straddling different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
Parallels to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress is enthusiastic, naming it alongside Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as influences for I Love LA, which tracks the journey of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion and aspiring agent Maia. However, the largest spot on concept belonged to Entourage, that HBO sitcom depicting an up-and-coming Hollywood star succeeding in a gritty LA scene (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott discovered it during lockdown, became “obsessed”, and resolved to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she notes. The concept for this project originated—partly—from firsthand, at first rocky, relocation to Tinseltown and from her cosmic event, a much-talked-about occurrence for followers. That period marked a time that involved her understand major truths, in her career and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” 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…”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in Connecticut, the star commenced developing and showcasing comedy while pursuing acting at a prestigious arts school. “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 took matters into her own hands, performing at live shows with her friend and uploading hysterical (and distinctly) unconventional skits online. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted several females fetishistically obsessed with motherhood; a different one imagined working at the brand Hollister as similar to being trapped in a scary movie. By chance, she encountered Seligman through campus film circles and ultimately appearing in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a funeral gathering with echoes of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her career, she notes, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, rather than established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, stating humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Anyone who questioned regarding Sennott previously will likely be feeling foolish currently. Through she calls a “incredibly circular” story, she has achieved her dream vehicle. A few years back she shared a clip titled on LA life online, in which she lampooned movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a series about Angelenos juggling benefits of online celebrity (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your client being accused of being a intoxicated thief, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). It would be easy to produce a program about online fame that was extremely aspirational—or, worse, one that punched down at those depicted. This show steers clear of each, resulting in a depiction of privileged twentysomething life that’s frank about the mess 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 says. “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
