The actress and writer on the uproarious show about the chaotic glamour of today's youth lifestyle
The performer appears on the video call and immediately begins an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, sounding genuinely apologetic. Although she's only slightly delayed, she wants to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, in this context, this is just what is ideal to experience. Additionally, it’s pretty expected. Those who know her unapologetically openly gay and unapologetically crass movie Bottoms—which she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and appeared in alongside close companion the talented actress—will understand that Sennott holds plenty to discuss, whether on identity, intimacy, or the pros of forming a teen brawl society. Furthermore, once you finish her new seasonal program titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star has additional perspectives about the darker side of modern youth (Now in her thirties, Sennott represents an honorary member of the gang, a tale-end millennial adept for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and the actress readily acknowledges enthusiastic, naming the show together with Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as inspirations for I Love LA, which follows the struggles of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion and aspiring agent Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the most significant spot on the moodboard was reserved for the popular sitcom, that show about an up-and-coming celebrity navigating in a gritty LA scene (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott started watching it throughout COVID-19, became “hooked”, and resolved to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The concept for this project originated—partly—from personal, at first fractious, transition to Los Angeles and from her astrological phase, a popular phenomenon for followers. That period marked a time that saw her grasp significant insights, professionally and individually. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she admits. “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
Brought up in the East Coast, Sennott started creating and acting stand-up while enrolled in performance at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. 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, appearing at amateur nights with Ayo and sharing uproarious (and decidedly) unconventional online content digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted several females intensely fixated on having babies; a different one imagined working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being stuck in a horror film. By chance, she connected with Seligman through the university’s film scene and ultimately featuring in her first film, Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a religious event with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her career, she explains, has been people her own age offering opportunities, rather than traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, adding amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who were skeptical regarding Sennott previously will certainly be regretting it today. In what she describes as a “astonishingly complete” story, she seems to have manifested the perfect project. In 2019 she posted content titled on LA life online, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a show about Angelenos juggling benefits of internet fame (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being suspected of being a drug-addled criminal, and potentially becoming a unreliable persona non grata). Some could simple to create a program about digital influence that was overly aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at those depicted. I Love LA steers clear of each, making for a representation of advantaged twentysomething life that’s candid about the grot and the glamour.
Empathetic Approach
“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