The performer joins the digital interview and at once launches into an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, sounding genuinely remorseful. She is only a couple of minutes delayed, she feels compelled to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Fortunately, in this context, this is precisely what you want to encounter. Moreover, it’s quite predictable. Viewers who know her unapologetically queer and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and featured in with collaborator The Bear’s standout—would be aware that Sennott holds a lot to say, whether about identity, relationships, or the pros of creating a youth combat group. Plus, after watching the latest multi-episode show I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she has additional insights regarding the darker side of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott represents a bridge of the gang, on the cusp skilled for bridging different age groups).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and Sennott readily acknowledges enthusiastic, naming it in addition to Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as guides for the project, which details the travails of a social media star Tallulah and close companion and aspiring representative portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the biggest presence on creative vision went to the HBO series, that program depicting an emerging A-list actor navigating in a corrupt Hollywood (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott started watching it during the pandemic, became “captivated”, and chose to put her own twist on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she notes. The idea for the series came—partly—from her own, initially rocky, relocation to Los Angeles and from the cosmic event, a frequently discussed phenomenon for enthusiasts. This represented a time that involved her understand significant truths, professionally and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Starting Out
Growing up in New England, Sennott started writing and performing comedy while enrolled in theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she explains. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott decided to act independently, performing at open mics with Ayo and sharing hilarious (and distinctly) weird online content on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted characters obsessively obsessed with having babies; a different one imagined working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being trapped in a scary movie. By chance, she met Seligman through the university’s film scene and ended up starring in her first film, Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a religious event with echoes of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her journey, she says, has been peers supporting her, instead of the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, stating amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Anyone who had doubts about Sennott earlier will surely be kicking themselves now. Through she calls a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she seems to have manifested her dream vehicle. A few years back she uploaded content titled on LA life on social media, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a show about LA residents juggling advantages of internet fame (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being accused of being a substance-abusing thief, and possibly becoming a risky pariah). Some could easy to create a show about online fame that was extremely glamorous—or, worse, one that punched down at those depicted. This show steers clear of each, creating a representation of advantaged millennial living that’s frank about the chaos and the appeal.
Empathetic Approach
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
