The star enters the online meeting and at once begins an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, sounding truly remorseful. She is only a bit delayed, she wants to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, for a writer, this is just what is ideal to hear. Besides, it’s fairly predictable. Viewers familiar with her boldly queer and outspoken movie Bottoms—that she co-wrote with the director and appeared in alongside close companion Ayo Edebiri—will be aware that Sennott has much to share, whether on roles, sex, or the merits of creating a high-school combat group. And, by the end her new seasonal HBO series titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she holds further insights on the challenges of young adulthood (At 30, she represents a bridge for this generation, a tale-end millennial adept for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott admits to being an admirer, citing it alongside the HBO hit, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as influences for I Love LA, which details the struggles of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also fledgling agent Sennott’s character. Notably, the biggest spot on concept was reserved for Entourage, that HBO sitcom depicting an emerging celebrity making his way in a corrupt Hollywood (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott began viewing it during the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and chose to add a fresh perspective 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 came—to some extent—from her own, originally fractious, relocation to Los Angeles and from the saturn return, a much-talked-about phenomenon for followers. That period marked an era that included her learn some big truths, work-wise and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Humble Origins
Raised in the East Coast, the star began developing and showcasing humor while enrolled in performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She took matters into her own hands, performing at amateur nights with Edebiri and sharing uproarious (and decidedly) unconventional comedy videos digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on characters intensely drawn to pregnancy; a different one envisioned working at the brand Hollister as similar to being stuck in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Emma through campus film circles and ended up starring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a religious event with echoes of the intense thriller. The big theme of her journey, she notes, has been people her own age supporting her, as opposed to the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, continuing humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who were skeptical regarding Sennott previously will surely be regretting it today. In what she calls a “incredibly circular” story, she seems to have created her dream vehicle. Previously she shared content called “it’s LA” on social media, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a comedy about city dwellers managing benefits of digital stardom (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being accused of being a drug-addled thief, and potentially becoming a risky outcast). It would be tempting to make a series about internet celebrity that was extremely idealized—or, more problematic, one that belittled at those depicted. I Love LA does neither, creating a portrait of privileged young adult life that’s honest about the mess and the glamour.
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 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
