The star joins the digital interview and at once launches into an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, appearing really apologetic. Despite being only a bit late, she needs to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, during an interview, this is just what is ideal to encounter. Additionally, it’s fairly unsurprising. Viewers familiar with her fearlessly openly gay and unapologetically crass movie Bottoms—that she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and featured in alongside collaborator the talented actress—can already know that Sennott holds plenty to say, be it about roles, intimacy, or the appeal of starting a high-school brawl society. And, by the end her recent seasonal program I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds further perspectives about the darker side of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott represents a relatable figure of the gang, a tale-end millennial adept for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Creative Vision
Parallels to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott is a fan, citing the show alongside Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as guides for I Love LA, which tracks the struggles of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also fledgling representative Maia. Perhaps, the largest spot on concept went to the popular sitcom, the show focusing on an up-and-coming A-list actor succeeding in a gritty entertainment industry (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She started watching it amid lockdown, became “obsessed”, and decided to create a new version on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The idea for this project emerged—to some extent—from personal, at first rocky, transition to LA and from her saturn return, a much-talked-about phenomenon for astrology heads. That period marked a phase that saw her grasp significant life lessons, professionally 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. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Starting Out
Growing up in Connecticut, the star began creating and acting stand-up while enrolled in theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She seized control, taking the stage at live shows with Ayo and sharing hysterical (and very) weird skits digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed a group of women obsessively fixated on pregnancy; a different one imagined being employed at a trendy retail outlet as like being trapped in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Seligman through the university’s film scene and eventually featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her path, she says, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, as opposed to established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, adding humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who had doubts regarding Sennott then will surely be regretting it now. In what she calls a “incredibly circular” development, she has created an ideal role. A few years back she shared content titled “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she parodied film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about LA residents juggling benefits of online celebrity (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being accused of being a intoxicated stealer, and perhaps becoming a unreliable pariah). One might easy to produce a program about internet celebrity that was horribly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at its subjects. I Love LA avoids both, resulting in a depiction of privileged twentysomething life that’s frank about the mess and the glamour.
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
