The star appears on the online meeting and right away launches into an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, seeming genuinely regretful. Despite being only a bit behind, she feels compelled to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, in this context, that’s just what you want to hear. Besides, it’s fairly predictable. Those familiar with the unapologetically openly gay and brash project titled Bottoms—that she co-wrote with Emma Seligman and appeared in together with close companion Ayo Edebiri—would be aware that she has a lot to say, be it about identity, intimacy, or the pros of forming a high-school fight club. And, by the end her new eight-part program titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star carries additional insights regarding the struggles of modern youth (At 30, she represents a relatable figure to younger audiences, on the cusp with a knack for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and the actress admits to being an admirer, referencing it together with the HBO hit, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as guides for the project, which follows the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also aspiring talent manager Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the most significant influence on creative vision went to the popular sitcom, the program depicting a rising Hollywood star navigating in an often-seedy entertainment industry (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott started watching it throughout the pandemic, became “hooked”, and resolved to create a new version 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 says. The inspiration for the series emerged—partly—from personal, initially rocky, move to Los Angeles and from the astrological phase, a frequently discussed phenomenon for astrology heads. This represented an era that included her learn some big insights, in her career and individually. “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…”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott commenced creating and acting comedy while pursuing theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. 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 decided to act independently, appearing at open mics with her friend and uploading uproarious (and very) bizarre online content digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted a group of women obsessively obsessed with motherhood; another imagined being employed at the brand Hollister as like being trapped in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up featuring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of the intense thriller. The big theme of her career, she explains, has been peers supporting her, instead of traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, adding with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who were skeptical about her then will surely be kicking themselves today. As part of she calls a “astonishingly complete” development, she has achieved her dream vehicle. A few years back she posted a video called on LA life online, in which she parodied movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a show about city dwellers managing the perks of internet fame (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being labeled as being a substance-abusing thief, and perhaps becoming a unreliable pariah). One might easy to produce a show about online fame that was extremely glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at its subjects. I Love LA does neither, making for a representation of privileged millennial 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 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
