The performer appears on the online meeting and right away launches into an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, sounding really remorseful. She is only a couple of minutes delayed, she needs to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s just what is ideal to hear. Besides, it’s fairly unsurprising. Viewers familiar with her fearlessly queer and outspoken movie titled Bottoms—which she penned with the director and appeared in alongside collaborator the talented actress—would be aware that she possesses plenty to say, ranging from about roles, intimacy, or the pros of forming a youth fight club. And, after watching the new eight-part HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that she holds even more perspectives regarding the darker side of young adulthood (As a millennial, Sennott serves as an honorary member of the gang, straddling eras skilled for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and the actress is enthusiastic, naming the show together with Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as influences for I Love LA, which tracks the struggles of a social media star Tallulah and ally and aspiring agent Maia. However, the largest influence on the moodboard went to the HBO series, the program about an emerging A-list actor making his way in a gritty LA scene (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She discovered it throughout the pandemic, became “captivated”, and decided to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The inspiration for I Love LA came—in part—from her own, at first fractious, relocation to Tinseltown and from the astrological phase, a popular occurrence for followers. It was a time that saw her learn significant insights, professionally and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” 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…”
Starting Out
Raised in the East Coast, the star began creating and acting stand-up while studying acting at a prestigious arts school. “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.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She decided to act independently, taking the stage at open mics with her friend and posting hysterical (and distinctly) unconventional online content online. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed characters fetishistically fixated on pregnancy; another portrayed working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being stuck in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Seligman through NYU’s movie community and eventually appearing in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a religious event with hints of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her journey, she says, has been contemporaries supporting her, rather than established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, adding with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who were skeptical about Sennott then will likely be feeling foolish currently. As part of she calls a “incredibly circular” story, she has created an ideal role. Previously she posted content called “it’s LA” on social media, in which she lampooned film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a series about Angelenos juggling benefits of online celebrity (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being labeled as being a intoxicated criminal, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). One might simple to make a program about digital influence that was horribly aspirational—or, more problematic, one that belittled at those depicted. I Love LA steers clear of each, creating a representation of affluent twentysomething life that’s candid about the chaos and the glamour.
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 observes. “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
