The star appears on the online meeting and at once launches into an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, appearing really remorseful. Despite being only a bit behind, she feels compelled to justify. “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!” Thankfully, in this context, that’s exactly what one hopes to encounter. Besides, it’s quite expected. Anyone who know her unapologetically openly gay and unapologetically crass project titled Bottoms—which Sennott penned with the director and appeared in together with close companion The Bear’s standout—will understand that she possesses plenty to discuss, whether about roles, sex, or the pros of forming a teen combat group. And, once you finish the new eight-part program titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she has additional perspectives on the challenges of modern youth (As a millennial, she serves as a relatable figure of the gang, on the cusp skilled for straddling both generations).
Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and Sennott is enthusiastic, citing the show together with Sex and the City, Insecure and Atlanta as influences for I Love LA, which follows the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also fledgling talent manager Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the most significant influence on concept belonged to Entourage, the program focusing on an up-and-coming A-list actor navigating in a corrupt LA scene (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott began viewing it amid COVID-19, became “captivated”, and chose to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she says. The idea for I Love LA emerged—partly—from her own, at first fractious, move to LA and from the astrological phase, a much-talked-about phenomenon for astrology heads. This represented a phase that included her understand some big life lessons, in her career and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she admits. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in New England, Sennott began writing and performing stand-up while studying acting at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at amateur nights with Edebiri and sharing uproarious (and very) unconventional comedy videos on the internet. One, Baby Cult, depicted characters fetishistically drawn to motherhood; a different one portrayed working at the brand Hollister as like being trapped in a horror film. Interestingly, she connected with Seligman through the university’s film scene and eventually featuring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a funeral gathering with hints of the intense thriller. The big theme of her journey, she explains, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, as opposed to established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she repeats, stating amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Those who had doubts about Sennott previously will surely be feeling foolish now. In what she labels a “wild, full-circle” development, she has achieved the perfect project. In 2019 she posted content named about Los Angeles online, in which she mocked movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a comedy about LA residents managing benefits of internet fame (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your client being suspected of being a substance-abusing stealer, and possibly becoming a risky outcast). Some could easy to create a show about online fame that was horribly aspirational—or, worse, one that belittled at its subjects. The series avoids both, creating a portrait of privileged young adult living that’s honest about the mess and the shine.
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
