The star enters the video call and right away launches into an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, seeming really regretful. She is only a couple of minutes delayed, she wants to clarify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, in this context, this is exactly what is ideal to hear. Besides, it’s fairly expected. Anyone familiar with her boldly queer and brash movie titled Bottoms—that she penned with the director and appeared in together with her friend The Bear’s standout—will already know that she holds a lot to share, whether on roles, relationships, or the pros of forming a high-school brawl society. And, by the end the recent eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds additional perspectives about the struggles of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott represents an honorary member to younger audiences, straddling eras adept for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and the actress admits to being a fan, referencing the show in addition to Sex and the City, Insecure and Atlanta as guides for her series, which details the journey of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and aspiring talent manager portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the largest spot on the moodboard belonged to the HBO series, that show focusing on an emerging A-list actor succeeding in a corrupt entertainment industry (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott began viewing it throughout lockdown, became “obsessed”, and chose to put her own twist on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she notes. The idea for I Love LA originated—to some extent—from firsthand, originally rocky, relocation to LA and from the astrological phase, a much-talked-about phenomenon for followers. It was a time that included her understand some big life lessons, in her career and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Early Beginnings
Raised in New England, Sennott commenced creating and acting comedy while pursuing theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
She took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at amateur nights with Ayo and posting uproarious (and decidedly) unconventional online content digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted characters intensely drawn to motherhood; a different one portrayed working at the brand Hollister as like being trapped in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Emma through NYU’s movie community and ultimately starring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her journey, she says, has been peers supporting her, instead of traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, continuing amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who were skeptical about her earlier will likely be feeling foolish now. Through she calls a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she has achieved the perfect project. A few years back she shared content titled “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a series about city dwellers juggling the perks of online celebrity (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your friend being suspected of being a intoxicated thief, and potentially becoming a unreliable persona non grata). Some could simple to make a series about digital influence that was horribly idealized—or, worse, one that punched down at those depicted. I Love LA does neither, making for a depiction of affluent millennial life that’s candid about the mess and the glamour.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
