🔗 Share this article

The performer enters the digital interview and immediately starts an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, appearing truly remorseful. Despite being only a bit behind, she needs to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, during an interview, this is just what is ideal to experience. Moreover, it’s quite unsurprising. Anyone familiar with her boldly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—which she co-wrote with the director and starred in alongside her friend Ayo Edebiri—would already know that Sennott possesses much to say, be it about roles, intimacy, or the merits of forming a teen brawl society. And, by the end her new eight-part show titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries even more perspectives on the challenges of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, Sennott represents an honorary member of the gang, a tale-end millennial adept for connecting millennials and Gen Z).

Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach

Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and Sennott readily acknowledges an admirer, referencing the show in addition to the classic series, Insecure and the innovative program as inspirations for the project, which follows the struggles of online personality Tallulah and ally and fledgling agent Sennott’s character. However, the most significant influence on concept was reserved for the popular sitcom, that show depicting a rising Hollywood star making his way in an often-seedy entertainment industry (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She started watching it throughout the pandemic, became “captivated”, and chose to put her own twist on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.

“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she says. The concept for I Love LA originated—in part—from her own, at first fractious, relocation to Tinseltown and from the astrological phase, a popular event for enthusiasts. It was a time that involved her learn significant insights, in her career and individually. “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. It was almost like these biblical tests …”

Starting Out

Raised in the East Coast, the star started developing and showcasing comedy while studying performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”

She took matters into her own hands, performing at live shows with her friend and uploading hilarious (and decidedly) bizarre online content digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on several females obsessively drawn to pregnancy; a different one portrayed being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being trapped in a scary movie. By chance, she met Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up appearing in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a Jewish wake with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her journey, she says, has been contemporaries supporting her, instead of traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, adding with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Manifesting Dreams

Those who were skeptical regarding Sennott earlier will certainly be kicking themselves now. As part of she calls a “astonishingly complete” story, she has manifested the perfect project. In 2019 she shared content titled about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she mocked film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a series about LA residents juggling advantages of digital stardom (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being labeled as being a intoxicated criminal, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). Some could easy to make a show about internet celebrity that was extremely glamorous—or, worse, one that mocked at the characters. The series avoids both, making for a representation of advantaged millennial existence that’s frank about the grot 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