The actress and writer exploring her hilarious series depicting the grotty glamour of younger generation lifestyle
The performer appears on the online meeting and right away starts an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, appearing truly apologetic. Despite being only a bit late, she wants to clarify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, during an interview, that’s precisely what one hopes to encounter. Moreover, it’s pretty unsurprising. Those who have seen her unapologetically openly gay and brash movie titled Bottoms—that she co-wrote with her creative partner and starred in with close companion the talented actress—will understand that she has plenty to share, whether on identity, intimacy, or the appeal of creating a high-school brawl society. Plus, after watching the recent seasonal HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that the star has even more perspectives regarding the darker side of Gen Z life (As a millennial, Sennott represents a relatable figure for this generation, on the cusp skilled for bridging different age groups).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and the actress admits to being an admirer, naming it together with Sex and the City, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as influences for the project, which tracks the struggles of online personality Tallulah and ally who is also fledgling representative Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the biggest presence on creative vision was reserved for the HBO series, the program depicting an emerging Hollywood star making his way in a corrupt LA scene (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott began viewing it amid the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and chose to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she says. The inspiration for I Love LA originated—partly—from personal, initially rocky, relocation to Tinseltown and from her astrological phase, a popular phenomenon for enthusiasts. That period marked a time that included her grasp significant life lessons, work-wise and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott commenced creating and acting humor while studying acting 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.” 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 took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at open mics with her friend and sharing hysterical (and very) weird online content digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted a group of women intensely obsessed with motherhood; a different one envisioned working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being stuck in a scary movie. Interestingly, she encountered Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ended up starring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her journey, she notes, has been contemporaries supporting her, rather than established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, continuing humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who had doubts regarding Sennott previously will likely be feeling foolish today. Through she calls a “wild, full-circle” development, she has created her dream vehicle. Previously she shared a video titled about Los Angeles on social media, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a series about Angelenos managing benefits of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being suspected of being a drug-addled stealer, and perhaps becoming a risky pariah). One might simple to produce a series about internet celebrity that was horribly aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at the characters. This show avoids both, making for a representation of affluent millennial existence that’s honest about the mess and the glamour.
Balanced Perspective
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” she comments. “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
