The actress and writer on her side-splitting show about that grotty allure of younger generation lifestyle
The performer enters the online meeting and right away starts an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, sounding really apologetic. She is only a bit delayed, she feels compelled 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, that’s just what one hopes to encounter. Moreover, it’s pretty expected. Anyone who know her fearlessly LGBTQ+ and outspoken movie Bottoms—that she penned with Emma Seligman and starred in with her friend the talented actress—can understand that she holds a lot to share, be it about gender, relationships, or the pros of forming a teen combat group. And, by the end the new multi-episode program titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star has even more perspectives on the challenges of young adulthood (As a millennial, Sennott is a bridge to younger audiences, on the cusp with a knack for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott admits to being an admirer, naming the show in addition to the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as influences for I Love LA, which follows the struggles of online personality Tallulah and her friend who is also aspiring talent manager Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the most significant spot on creative vision was reserved for the HBO series, the program focusing on an emerging Hollywood star navigating in a corrupt entertainment industry (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott began viewing it amid the pandemic, became “hooked”, and chose to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The inspiration for I Love LA came—in part—from personal, originally difficult, move to Tinseltown and from her cosmic event, a much-talked-about occurrence for followers. This represented a time that saw her learn major insights, professionally and in private life. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” 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 resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Starting Out
Raised in Connecticut, Sennott started creating and acting comedy while pursuing theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott decided to act independently, performing at live shows with her friend and uploading hysterical (and very) bizarre online content digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, followed characters fetishistically fixated on pregnancy; a different one envisioned being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being stuck in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Seligman through campus film circles and ended up featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a Jewish wake with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her journey, she explains, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, rather than established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she repeats, continuing humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who were skeptical regarding Sennott then will likely be feeling foolish now. Through she describes as a “wild, full-circle” story, she has created her dream vehicle. Previously she shared a clip titled “it’s LA” online, in which she lampooned film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a series about Angelenos juggling the perks of internet fame (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being suspected of being a drug-addled thief, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). Some could easy to make a show about digital influence that was overly idealized—or, more problematic, one that punched down at its subjects. This show does neither, resulting in a representation of privileged millennial life that’s frank about the chaos and the appeal.
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
