The performer enters the video call and immediately launches into an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, appearing really apologetic. Although she's only slightly delayed, she wants to clarify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, in this context, this is just what is ideal to experience. Besides, it’s fairly expected. Viewers who have seen her fearlessly openly gay and brash movie Bottoms—which she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and starred in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—would understand that she has plenty to say, be it about gender, intimacy, or the pros of starting a high-school fight club. Furthermore, once you finish her latest eight-part program titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star holds additional perspectives about the challenges of modern youth (As a millennial, she serves as a relatable figure to younger audiences, straddling eras skilled for connecting both generations).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, citing the show together with Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for the project, which tracks the journey of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also new talent manager Sennott’s character. Notably, the biggest spot on creative vision belonged to Entourage, the HBO sitcom about an up-and-coming celebrity 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 amid COVID-19, became “captivated”, and resolved to add a fresh perspective 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 explains. The inspiration for I Love LA came—to some extent—from personal, initially difficult, transition to Tinseltown and from the saturn return, a popular occurrence for enthusiasts. It was a phase that saw her grasp some big life lessons, work-wise and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” 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…”
Early Beginnings
Raised in New England, Sennott commenced developing and showcasing stand-up while studying acting at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott decided to act independently, taking the stage at open mics with Edebiri and uploading uproarious (and very) bizarre online content online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted several females fetishistically drawn to motherhood; a different one portrayed working at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being trapped in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Seligman through the university’s film scene and ultimately featuring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a funeral gathering with hints of the intense thriller. The central motif of her path, she notes, has been people her own age supporting her, as opposed to the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, stating with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Those who questioned regarding her earlier will likely be kicking themselves today. Through she labels a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she appears to created an ideal role. Previously she shared a clip called on LA life on the internet, in which she lampooned film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a series about LA residents managing advantages of internet fame (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being accused of being a drug-addled thief, and potentially becoming a unreliable pariah). Some could easy to create a show about online fame that was extremely idealized—or, more problematic, one that punched down at its subjects. I Love LA avoids both, making for a representation of advantaged young adult existence that’s frank about the grot 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
