The star appears on the video call and at once launches into an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, sounding truly regretful. Although she's only slightly behind, she needs to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s precisely what you want to encounter. Additionally, it’s fairly unsurprising. Anyone familiar with her fearlessly queer and brash film Bottoms—which she co-wrote with the director and starred in with close companion Ayo Edebiri—can understand that Sennott holds much to share, whether about roles, relationships, or the pros of starting a teen combat group. Plus, by the end her recent eight-part show titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she has additional thoughts about the challenges of Gen Z life (At 30, she serves as a bridge to younger audiences, straddling eras skilled for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and Sennott is an admirer, citing it in addition to the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as influences for her series, which tracks the travails of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and aspiring talent manager Sennott’s character. However, the biggest spot on the moodboard went to Entourage, that program focusing on an up-and-coming Hollywood star navigating in a corrupt Hollywood (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it throughout COVID-19, became “hooked”, and decided to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The inspiration for the series originated—in part—from her own, at first fractious, transition to Tinseltown and from the saturn return, a frequently discussed occurrence for enthusiasts. This represented a phase that included her understand some big insights, professionally and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Starting Out
Raised in the East Coast, the star started developing and showcasing humor while studying acting at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott decided to act independently, performing at open mics with Edebiri and posting hysterical (and distinctly) unconventional comedy videos digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women intensely fixated on pregnancy; another portrayed working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being trapped in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up starring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a Jewish wake with hints of the intense thriller. The big theme of her career, she says, has been contemporaries supporting her, rather than established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she repeats, continuing humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who were skeptical regarding her then will surely be regretting it today. Through she describes as a “wild, full-circle” story, she appears to created the perfect project. A few years back she shared content titled about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a show about city dwellers juggling benefits of online celebrity (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being labeled as being a substance-abusing thief, and perhaps becoming a unreliable pariah). One might simple to produce a series about internet celebrity that was extremely idealized—or, more problematic, one that belittled at those depicted. I Love LA avoids both, resulting in a portrait of affluent millennial life that’s candid about the grot and the appeal.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
