The star appears on the online meeting and right away launches into an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, seeming truly remorseful. Although she's only a couple of minutes late, she wants to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, for a writer, this is just what is ideal to encounter. Additionally, it’s pretty expected. Anyone who have seen the fearlessly queer and brash project titled Bottoms—which Sennott penned with the director and appeared in together with collaborator The Bear’s standout—would be aware that she holds much to share, ranging from on identity, sex, or the merits of creating a teen brawl society. Plus, after watching her new eight-part show I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she holds additional thoughts regarding the challenges of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, she is a bridge of the gang, on the cusp adept for straddling different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and Sennott admits to being a fan, naming it alongside the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as inspirations for the project, which tracks the journey of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also new representative Sennott’s character. Notably, the most significant spot on creative vision belonged to the popular sitcom, that program depicting a rising celebrity making his way in a corrupt LA scene (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She discovered it throughout COVID-19, became “hooked”, and decided to add a fresh perspective 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—partly—from her own, originally difficult, transition to LA and from her cosmic event, a frequently discussed event for astrology heads. This represented an era that saw her grasp significant truths, professionally and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Starting Out
Brought up in New England, Sennott started writing and performing stand-up while pursuing performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She decided to act independently, taking the stage at amateur nights with Edebiri and posting hilarious (and distinctly) bizarre skits online. One, Baby Cult, centered on characters obsessively drawn to having babies; a different one imagined being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being trapped in a scary movie. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through campus film circles and eventually appearing in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a religious event with echoes of the intense thriller. The big theme of her path, she notes, has been people her own age offering opportunities, as opposed to the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, adding amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Manifesting Dreams
Individuals who had doubts regarding her then will likely be feeling foolish currently. In what she calls a “astonishingly complete” story, she appears to created an ideal role. In 2019 she shared content titled about Los Angeles on social media, in which she lampooned film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about LA residents juggling the perks of internet fame (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being accused of being a intoxicated thief, and perhaps becoming a unreliable persona non grata). It would be tempting to make a series about internet celebrity that was overly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at those depicted. I Love LA does neither, resulting in a portrait of privileged millennial existence that’s candid about the mess and the shine.
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 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
