The actress and writer on the uproarious show about the grotty glamour of Gen Z life
The star joins the video call and at once starts an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, appearing truly regretful. She is only a bit late, she needs to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, in this context, this is just what one hopes to hear. Additionally, it’s quite expected. Anyone who have seen her fearlessly openly gay and unapologetically crass movie Bottoms—that she penned with the director and appeared in alongside close companion Ayo Edebiri—will understand that Sennott has much to say, whether about gender, relationships, or the appeal of creating a high-school brawl society. And, by the end her latest eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star has even more thoughts about the challenges of young adulthood (At 30, Sennott represents a relatable figure for this generation, a tale-end millennial adept for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Creative Vision
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress readily acknowledges enthusiastic, citing it together with Sex and the City, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as influences for her series, which details the journey of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and fledgling talent manager Sennott’s character. However, the largest influence on concept went to the popular sitcom, that show about an emerging Hollywood star making his way in a gritty LA scene (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott started watching it during lockdown, became “captivated”, and chose to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The inspiration for this project originated—in part—from her own, at first fractious, transition to Tinseltown and from her cosmic event, a much-talked-about occurrence for astrology heads. That period marked a time that included her learn significant truths, work-wise and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Humble Origins
Brought up in the East Coast, the star began developing and showcasing stand-up while pursuing performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, performing at amateur nights with Ayo and posting hilarious (and decidedly) bizarre comedy videos digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on several females intensely fixated on having babies; another portrayed working at the brand Hollister as akin to being stuck in a scary movie. Interestingly, she connected with Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually featuring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a funeral gathering with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her path, she notes, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, rather than established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, continuing with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who were skeptical regarding her then will surely be regretting it currently. In what she describes as a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she seems to have manifested an ideal role. Previously she shared a video named “it’s LA” on social media, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a series about Angelenos balancing advantages of digital stardom (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being labeled as being a intoxicated thief, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). It would be easy to create a series about online fame that was horribly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that mocked at those depicted. This show avoids both, resulting in a depiction of privileged millennial living that’s honest about the grot and the glamour.
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
