The star enters the video call and at once launches into an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, sounding truly remorseful. Despite being only slightly behind, she feels compelled to explain. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Fortunately, in this context, that’s precisely what one hopes to encounter. Moreover, it’s quite predictable. Viewers who know the fearlessly LGBTQ+ and outspoken film Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with the director and featured in alongside her friend Ayo Edebiri—can be aware that Sennott has plenty to share, be it about identity, relationships, or the merits of creating a youth fight club. Furthermore, after watching the recent eight-part program titled I Love LA, viewers realize that the star carries further perspectives about the challenges of Gen Z life (At 30, she is an honorary member of the gang, straddling eras skilled for bridging both generations).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and Sennott readily acknowledges enthusiastic, referencing the show alongside Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as guides for her series, which details the journey of online personality Tallulah and her friend who is also aspiring talent manager Sennott’s character. Notably, the biggest presence on concept went to Entourage, that HBO sitcom focusing on a rising celebrity succeeding in a gritty entertainment industry (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott began viewing it throughout lockdown, became “obsessed”, and chose 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 says. The inspiration for the series emerged—to some extent—from firsthand, originally difficult, transition to Tinseltown and from the saturn return, a popular event for enthusiasts. This represented a phase that involved her understand significant insights, in her career and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Starting Out
Brought up in New England, Sennott started writing and performing comedy while studying performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at amateur nights with Ayo and uploading hysterical (and decidedly) weird comedy videos online. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted a group of women fetishistically obsessed with motherhood; another portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being stuck in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she met Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up starring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her path, she explains, has been contemporaries supporting her, rather than established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, adding humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who were skeptical about her earlier will likely be feeling foolish now. Through she calls a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she seems to have manifested the perfect project. In 2019 she shared a clip titled about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she parodied film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a series about LA residents managing benefits of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being suspected of being a substance-abusing thief, and perhaps becoming a risky pariah). One might easy to produce a series about digital influence that was extremely glamorous—or, worse, one that belittled at the characters. This show steers clear of each, creating a depiction of privileged young adult existence that’s honest about the chaos and the appeal.
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 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
