The performer joins the video call and right away begins an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, appearing genuinely apologetic. Although she's only a couple of minutes behind, she wants to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Fortunately, during an interview, this is precisely what is ideal to hear. Additionally, it’s quite predictable. Anyone familiar with her unapologetically LGBTQ+ and brash movie Bottoms—which Sennott penned with the director and starred in alongside collaborator the talented actress—can be aware that Sennott holds plenty to say, whether about roles, sex, or the appeal of creating a teen fight club. Plus, after watching the new seasonal program I Love LA, it is clear that she holds even more insights on the challenges of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott serves as a bridge of the gang, on the cusp skilled for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Creative Vision
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and Sennott is an admirer, citing the show together with Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as influences for the project, which details the travails of a social media star Tallulah and her friend and fledgling agent portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the biggest influence on concept belonged to the popular sitcom, the HBO sitcom focusing on a rising Hollywood star navigating in a corrupt Hollywood (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She started watching it during COVID-19, became “captivated”, and chose to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she notes. The concept for the series emerged—in part—from her own, originally difficult, relocation to Los Angeles and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about event for enthusiasts. That period marked a phase that saw her learn significant insights, professionally and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” 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
Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott began developing and showcasing comedy while enrolled in performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “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. 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, appearing at amateur nights with Edebiri and posting uproarious (and decidedly) unconventional skits on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women fetishistically obsessed with having babies; another imagined being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being trapped in a scary movie. By chance, she connected with Seligman through the university’s film scene and ended up featuring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a Jewish wake with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her path, she notes, has been people her own age giving her a shot, rather than established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, adding with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who had doubts regarding her earlier will certainly be kicking themselves today. Through she calls a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she has achieved an ideal role. Previously she uploaded content titled on LA life on social media, in which she lampooned film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a series about LA residents managing the perks of internet fame (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being accused of being a substance-abusing criminal, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). It would be easy to make a show about digital influence that was overly idealized—or, more problematic, one that belittled at those depicted. This show steers clear of each, resulting in a representation of advantaged twentysomething life that’s frank about the chaos 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 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
