The actress and writer on the uproarious comedy portraying that messy allure of Gen Z existence
The star enters the digital interview and at once starts an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, seeming really regretful. Although she's only slightly late, she feels compelled to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, during an interview, this is precisely what is ideal to hear. Besides, it’s quite unsurprising. Viewers who have seen the boldly openly gay and outspoken movie Bottoms—which she co-wrote with Emma Seligman and featured in together with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—can already know that Sennott has plenty to share, be it about identity, intimacy, or the appeal of forming a high-school brawl society. Furthermore, after watching her latest multi-episode HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that she holds further insights about the struggles of modern youth (At 30, Sennott represents a relatable figure of the gang, on the cusp adept for straddling both generations).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and the actress readily acknowledges an admirer, naming it together with the HBO hit, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as guides for her series, which details the struggles of a social media star Tallulah and close companion and fledgling representative Maia. However, the biggest influence on the moodboard went to the HBO series, that show depicting an up-and-coming celebrity making his way in an often-seedy Hollywood (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She began viewing it throughout the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and resolved to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she explains. The inspiration for this project came—partly—from personal, initially fractious, relocation to Tinseltown and from the cosmic event, a popular event for enthusiasts. It was an era that included her understand some big truths, in her career and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Starting Out
Raised in the East Coast, the star began writing and performing comedy while studying performance at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “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?”
She decided to act independently, taking the stage at open mics with Edebiri and uploading hysterical (and distinctly) bizarre skits on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, followed characters intensely obsessed with pregnancy; another imagined working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being trapped in a horror film. Interestingly, she connected with Emma through the university’s film scene and ultimately appearing in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a Jewish wake with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her journey, she notes, has been people her own age giving her a shot, rather than the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, stating with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Individuals who had doubts regarding Sennott earlier will likely be kicking themselves today. Through she describes as a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she seems to have achieved her dream vehicle. In 2019 she posted a clip titled about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she mocked film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about Angelenos balancing benefits of internet fame (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being labeled as being a substance-abusing criminal, and potentially becoming a risky persona non grata). Some could simple to make a program about internet celebrity that was horribly aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at its subjects. The series steers clear of each, creating a representation of privileged young adult living that’s honest about the mess and the glamour.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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