The star enters the digital interview and immediately starts an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, seeming genuinely regretful. Although she's only slightly late, she feels compelled to justify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s just what one hopes to hear. Moreover, it’s pretty predictable. Anyone familiar with her unapologetically openly gay and brash movie Bottoms—which she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and appeared in alongside her friend the talented actress—would understand that she has much to say, ranging from about gender, sex, or the pros of creating a high-school brawl society. Furthermore, after watching the recent eight-part show I Love LA, it is clear that she has further insights about the darker side of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, she represents a relatable figure for this generation, on the cusp skilled for straddling both generations).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
Parallels to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and the actress is an admirer, naming the show alongside Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for her series, which tracks the struggles of online personality Tallulah and close companion who is also new talent manager portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the most significant presence on concept was reserved for Entourage, that program about a rising A-list actor making his way in a corrupt LA scene (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She discovered it throughout the pandemic, became “hooked”, and chose to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she notes. The inspiration for the series emerged—to some extent—from her own, initially fractious, relocation to Los Angeles and from the saturn return, a popular phenomenon for followers. It was a phase that saw her grasp some big insights, work-wise and individually. “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.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Starting Out
Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott began creating and acting stand-up while studying performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
She took matters into her own hands, appearing at open mics with her friend and posting uproarious (and distinctly) unconventional online content on the internet. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, followed a group of women obsessively drawn to motherhood; a different one portrayed being employed at the brand Hollister as similar to being stuck in a horror film. By chance, she encountered Seligman through the university’s film scene and ended up featuring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a funeral gathering with hints of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her journey, she notes, has been peers supporting her, instead of traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, continuing with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who had doubts regarding her previously will surely be feeling foolish now. In what she calls a “incredibly circular” story, she seems to have created the perfect project. A few years back she posted a clip named on LA life on social media, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a series about Angelenos managing advantages of online celebrity (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being suspected of being a intoxicated thief, and potentially becoming a unreliable persona non grata). One might simple to create a series about internet celebrity that was extremely idealized—or, more problematic, one that punched down at the characters. This show steers clear of each, creating a depiction of advantaged twentysomething existence that’s frank about the chaos and the shine.
Balanced Perspective
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
