The actress and writer on the side-splitting series portraying that chaotic allure of Gen Z life
The performer joins the online meeting and at once launches into an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, appearing genuinely apologetic. She is only slightly late, she wants to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, for a writer, this is just what you want to encounter. Besides, it’s pretty predictable. Viewers familiar with her fearlessly queer and outspoken film Bottoms—which Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and starred in alongside her friend The Bear’s standout—would be aware that Sennott possesses much to discuss, ranging from about roles, relationships, or the pros of creating a teen fight club. And, once you finish her new seasonal HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that she holds additional thoughts about the darker side of modern youth (At 30, Sennott represents a bridge of the gang, on the cusp skilled for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Creative Vision
Parallels to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress readily acknowledges enthusiastic, citing it together with Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for I Love LA, which tracks the struggles of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also new talent manager portrayed by Sennott. However, the biggest presence on the moodboard belonged to the popular sitcom, that HBO sitcom focusing on an up-and-coming A-list actor succeeding in a gritty entertainment industry (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott began viewing it during COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and resolved to create a new version 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 explains. The idea for the series originated—partly—from firsthand, originally rocky, move to Los Angeles and from the astrological phase, a frequently discussed event for astrology heads. This represented a time that saw her learn significant truths, work-wise and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Starting Out
Growing up in New England, Sennott started developing and showcasing comedy while studying acting at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she states. “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?”
Sennott decided to act independently, performing at amateur nights with Ayo and uploading uproarious (and distinctly) weird online content online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on several females obsessively fixated on motherhood; a different one envisioned being employed at the brand Hollister as like being stuck in a thriller. Interestingly, she met Seligman through the university’s film scene and eventually appearing in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a religious event with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her journey, she says, has been people her own age supporting her, as opposed to established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, stating with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who were skeptical about her earlier will likely be kicking themselves currently. In what she calls a “wild, full-circle” story, she seems to have created the perfect project. In 2019 she posted a video named “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a show about LA residents managing the perks of internet fame (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being accused of being a drug-addled stealer, and possibly becoming a unreliable persona non grata). One might tempting to create a show about online fame that was extremely idealized—or, worse, one that belittled at those depicted. The series avoids both, making for a depiction of privileged millennial living that’s candid about the mess and the appeal.
Balanced Perspective
“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
