The performer joins the digital interview and immediately launches into an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, appearing really regretful. Although she's only slightly late, she wants to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, during an interview, that’s precisely what one hopes to encounter. Moreover, it’s fairly predictable. Viewers familiar with her fearlessly openly gay and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—which she penned with Emma Seligman and featured in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—would already know that Sennott has a lot to share, ranging from on gender, intimacy, or the merits of starting a high-school fight club. Plus, after watching the new multi-episode program I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds even more thoughts on the darker side of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott serves as a bridge to younger audiences, straddling eras adept for straddling different age groups).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott admits to being a fan, referencing the show alongside the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as influences for her series, which follows the travails of online personality Tallulah and her friend and fledgling representative portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the most significant spot on the moodboard was reserved for Entourage, the HBO sitcom focusing on an up-and-coming A-list actor succeeding in a gritty entertainment industry (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She began viewing it amid lockdown, became “hooked”, and resolved to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she explains. The inspiration for I Love LA emerged—to some extent—from her own, initially difficult, relocation to Los Angeles and from her cosmic event, a frequently discussed occurrence for enthusiasts. It was an era that saw her learn major life lessons, professionally and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “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 writing and performing comedy while pursuing acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott decided to act independently, appearing at open mics with Edebiri and posting uproarious (and distinctly) unconventional online content online. One, Baby Cult, depicted a group of women fetishistically drawn to motherhood; a different one imagined working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being stuck in a thriller. By chance, she encountered Seligman through campus film circles and ultimately featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the intense thriller. The big theme of her career, she notes, has been contemporaries supporting her, as opposed to established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, adding humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who had doubts regarding Sennott earlier will certainly be feeling foolish now. In what she describes as a “wild, full-circle” story, she appears to achieved the perfect project. A few years back she uploaded a clip named “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she lampooned film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a series about city dwellers balancing advantages of digital stardom (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your friend being accused of being a drug-addled thief, and potentially becoming a unreliable outcast). One might tempting to produce a program about digital influence that was horribly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at its subjects. I Love LA steers clear of each, creating a representation of advantaged twentysomething life that’s frank about the grot and the shine.
Balanced Perspective
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
