The star enters the video call and immediately begins an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, appearing genuinely apologetic. She is only a couple of minutes delayed, she feels compelled to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, in this context, that’s precisely what you want to encounter. Besides, it’s quite predictable. Anyone familiar with her fearlessly openly gay and outspoken movie titled Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with the director and featured in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—would understand that Sennott possesses much to discuss, whether about gender, intimacy, or the merits of starting a youth brawl society. And, by the end the new eight-part show titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she holds additional insights about the struggles of Gen Z life (As a millennial, she represents a bridge for this generation, straddling eras adept for bridging different age groups).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott admits to being an admirer, naming it alongside the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as influences for I Love LA, which tracks the journey of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also fledgling talent manager Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the biggest spot on concept went to Entourage, that show about an up-and-coming A-list actor making his way in a gritty Hollywood (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott discovered it throughout lockdown, became “obsessed”, and decided to add a fresh perspective 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 this project came—to some extent—from firsthand, at first rocky, move to Tinseltown and from her saturn return, a popular event for astrology heads. That period marked a phase that involved her understand significant life lessons, in her career and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Humble Origins
Raised in New England, the star started developing and showcasing comedy while enrolled in acting at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she states. “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 seized control, performing at open mics with Ayo and uploading uproarious (and very) bizarre comedy videos on the internet. One, Baby Cult, depicted several females intensely fixated on having babies; another imagined being employed at the brand Hollister as akin to being stuck in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she met Seligman through campus film circles and ended up appearing in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a religious event with hints of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her career, she notes, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, rather than the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, stating humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who questioned about Sennott earlier will likely be kicking themselves today. Through she labels a “wild, full-circle” development, she has created the perfect project. Previously she uploaded a clip called on LA life on the internet, in which she mocked movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a show about city dwellers balancing advantages of internet fame (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being suspected of being a intoxicated criminal, and perhaps becoming a unreliable pariah). It would be easy to produce a series about digital influence that was overly aspirational—or, worse, one that punched down at the characters. This show steers clear of each, resulting in a portrait of affluent millennial life that’s frank about the chaos and the shine.
Nuanced Portrayal
“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
