The star joins the video call and immediately launches into an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, seeming truly remorseful. Despite being only a bit late, she feels compelled to clarify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s just what one hopes to hear. Moreover, it’s quite predictable. Those familiar with her fearlessly queer and unapologetically crass movie titled Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with the director and featured in with her friend The Bear’s standout—will already know that Sennott holds much to discuss, whether on identity, sex, or the pros of forming a youth fight club. Plus, after watching the new eight-part program titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star holds additional thoughts regarding the challenges of modern youth (As a millennial, she serves as a relatable figure to younger audiences, on the cusp with a knack for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and the actress admits to being enthusiastic, referencing the show together with the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as guides for the project, which tracks the struggles of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and fledgling representative Sennott’s character. Notably, the largest presence on concept belonged to the popular sitcom, that program depicting an emerging A-list actor succeeding in a corrupt entertainment industry (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott discovered it throughout the pandemic, became “hooked”, and resolved to put her own twist on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she notes. The inspiration for I Love LA emerged—to some extent—from personal, at first difficult, transition to Tinseltown and from the saturn return, a popular phenomenon for followers. This represented a phase that saw her learn major insights, professionally and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “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…”
Humble Origins
Growing up in the East Coast, Sennott began creating and acting comedy while pursuing theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she explains. “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.”
She took matters into her own hands, performing at open mics with her friend and posting uproarious (and distinctly) bizarre skits on the internet. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted characters fetishistically fixated on pregnancy; another imagined working at the brand Hollister as similar to being trapped in a horror film. Interestingly, she encountered Seligman through campus film circles and ultimately starring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of the intense thriller. The central motif of her career, she says, has been people her own age giving her a shot, instead of traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, continuing humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Those who were skeptical about her then will certainly be regretting it today. In what she labels a “wild, full-circle” story, she seems to have achieved an ideal role. A few years back she uploaded content titled about Los Angeles on social media, in which she mocked film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a comedy about LA residents managing advantages of online celebrity (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being labeled as being a intoxicated stealer, and possibly becoming a unreliable pariah). Some could simple to produce a series about online fame that was overly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at its subjects. This show avoids both, making for a representation of advantaged millennial living that’s honest about the mess 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
