The star appears on the video call and immediately starts an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, seeming really regretful. Although she's only a couple of minutes delayed, she feels compelled to justify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, in this context, that’s just what you want to experience. Besides, it’s fairly predictable. Anyone familiar with her fearlessly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—that she collaborated on with the director and starred in with her friend The Bear’s standout—can already know that Sennott has plenty to discuss, whether about roles, sex, or the merits of creating a teen combat group. Plus, after watching her new eight-part program I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she holds further perspectives regarding the darker side of modern youth (At 30, she serves as an honorary member for this generation, a tale-end millennial adept for straddling different age groups).
Influences and Artistic Direction
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and Sennott readily acknowledges a fan, citing it together with Sex and the City, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as influences for I Love LA, which details the travails of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion and fledgling talent manager portrayed by Sennott. However, the largest spot on creative vision belonged to the HBO series, the program focusing on a rising Hollywood star navigating in an often-seedy entertainment industry (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it during the pandemic, became “captivated”, and resolved to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The inspiration for this project emerged—partly—from firsthand, at first fractious, transition to LA and from her saturn return, a popular event for astrology heads. This represented a phase that saw her grasp some big insights, in her career and in private life. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she says. “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 …”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in New England, Sennott started creating and acting stand-up 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. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott seized control, performing at live shows with Edebiri and uploading hysterical (and distinctly) unconventional online content online. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on characters intensely obsessed with having babies; another imagined working at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being stuck in a scary movie. Interestingly, she met Emma through the university’s film scene and ended up appearing in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her career, she says, has been peers offering opportunities, instead of traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, stating with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who were skeptical about her previously will likely be feeling foolish currently. In what she labels a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she has achieved an ideal role. Previously she uploaded a clip called about Los Angeles on social media, in which she lampooned film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a show about city dwellers balancing advantages of digital stardom (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being labeled as being a drug-addled criminal, and perhaps becoming a unreliable persona non grata). One might simple to create a show about internet celebrity that was overly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at its subjects. I Love LA steers clear of each, resulting in a portrait of affluent millennial living that’s candid about the mess and the shine.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
