The performer appears on the video call and right away launches into an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, seeming genuinely remorseful. She is only a bit delayed, she needs to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, in this context, this is exactly what you want to encounter. Moreover, it’s pretty expected. Viewers familiar with the fearlessly openly gay and brash project titled Bottoms—that she penned with her creative partner and starred in together with close companion The Bear’s standout—can already know that Sennott holds plenty to discuss, whether about gender, relationships, or the merits of starting a teen fight club. And, by the end her new eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star has additional insights on the darker side of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, she serves as a relatable figure to younger audiences, on the cusp with a knack for connecting both generations).
Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and the actress is enthusiastic, citing the show together with the classic series, Insecure and Atlanta as inspirations for the project, which details the struggles of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also aspiring agent portrayed by Sennott. However, the largest presence on concept was reserved for Entourage, that HBO sitcom focusing on a rising A-list actor navigating in a corrupt LA scene (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She discovered it throughout the pandemic, became “hooked”, and chose to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she notes. The concept for this project originated—in part—from personal, originally rocky, move to LA and from her cosmic event, a much-talked-about event for followers. That period marked a phase that involved her grasp major life lessons, in her career 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.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Early Beginnings
Raised in Connecticut, Sennott commenced developing and showcasing comedy while pursuing performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “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 seized control, performing at open mics with Ayo and uploading uproarious (and distinctly) unconventional skits online. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed a group of women obsessively obsessed with pregnancy; another envisioned working at a trendy retail outlet as like being trapped in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she met Emma through campus film circles and ended up featuring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a funeral gathering with echoes of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her career, she says, has been contemporaries supporting her, as opposed to traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, adding with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who questioned about Sennott previously will certainly be kicking themselves today. In what she describes as a “wild, full-circle” story, she seems to have created an ideal role. Previously she posted content titled “it’s LA” online, in which she parodied movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a series about city dwellers balancing benefits of online celebrity (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your client being labeled as being a intoxicated thief, and potentially becoming a risky outcast). It would be easy to make a series about internet celebrity that was horribly idealized—or, worse, one that mocked at its subjects. I Love LA does neither, creating a representation of affluent young adult life that’s frank about the mess and the appeal.
Empathetic Approach
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
