The performer appears on the video call and right away starts an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, seeming truly apologetic. Despite being only slightly late, she feels compelled to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, in this context, this is precisely what you want to hear. Additionally, it’s quite unsurprising. Anyone who know her unapologetically queer and outspoken project Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with her creative partner and starred in with close companion Ayo Edebiri—would already know that she has a lot to discuss, be it on identity, relationships, or the merits of forming a high-school combat group. Furthermore, once you finish her recent multi-episode show I Love LA, viewers realize that the star has even more thoughts regarding the darker side of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott represents a relatable figure to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial with a knack for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress is a fan, citing the show in addition to Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as guides for her series, which follows the struggles of an influencer Tallulah and close companion who is also new talent manager Sennott’s character. Notably, the largest spot on creative vision went to Entourage, that HBO sitcom about a rising A-list actor making his way in a gritty Hollywood (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott started watching it amid the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and chose to add a fresh perspective on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she notes. The idea for the series came—partly—from firsthand, initially difficult, move to LA and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about event for followers. This represented an era that involved her grasp significant truths, work-wise and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in New England, Sennott started creating and acting comedy while studying performance at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott seized control, taking the stage at amateur nights with her friend and sharing hysterical (and decidedly) bizarre online content digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted several females obsessively obsessed with motherhood; another portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being stuck in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she met Emma through campus film circles and eventually starring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her path, she explains, has been people her own age supporting her, rather than traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, stating humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Anyone who had doubts about Sennott earlier will surely be kicking themselves today. As part of she describes as a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she seems to have created an ideal role. In 2019 she posted content called about Los Angeles online, in which she mocked movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a show about LA residents managing benefits of online celebrity (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being accused of being a intoxicated thief, and possibly becoming a unreliable outcast). It would be tempting to make a program about digital influence that was extremely glamorous—or, worse, one that mocked at its subjects. This show steers clear of each, resulting in a representation of privileged millennial life that’s candid about the mess and the shine.
Empathetic Approach
“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
