The star appears on the video call and at once begins an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, appearing truly regretful. She is only slightly late, she wants to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, for a writer, that’s exactly what you want to encounter. Moreover, it’s fairly predictable. Those who know the fearlessly queer and unapologetically crass movie Bottoms—that Sennott penned with the director and starred in alongside her friend Ayo Edebiri—can already know that she has plenty to say, ranging from about identity, relationships, or the pros of creating a youth combat group. Furthermore, once you finish the latest eight-part HBO series I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she carries further insights regarding the darker side of Gen Z life (As a millennial, she represents an honorary member of the gang, straddling eras skilled for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott admits to being an admirer, citing the show alongside the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as guides for her series, which details the struggles of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also fledgling representative portrayed by Sennott. However, the most significant spot on concept went to Entourage, that program depicting an emerging celebrity navigating in a corrupt LA scene (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott began viewing it during lockdown, became “obsessed”, and resolved to put her own twist 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 notes. The concept for this project emerged—partly—from her own, at first fractious, move to LA and from the saturn return, a frequently discussed event for enthusiasts. It was a phase that involved her grasp some big insights, work-wise and in private life. “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 resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in the East Coast, the star began writing and performing humor while studying performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” 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. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, performing at open mics with Ayo and sharing hysterical (and decidedly) weird comedy videos digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted several females fetishistically drawn to pregnancy; a different one envisioned being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being caught in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Seligman through the university’s film scene and ended up starring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her path, she notes, has been peers giving her a shot, rather than traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, adding humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Manifesting Dreams
Individuals who were skeptical about Sennott then will surely be regretting it now. As part of she calls a “wild, full-circle” story, she seems to have manifested an ideal role. A few years back she uploaded a video called “it’s LA” online, in which she lampooned movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a series about LA residents balancing the perks of online celebrity (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being labeled as being a substance-abusing thief, and potentially becoming a unreliable persona non grata). One might simple to create a series about digital influence that was extremely glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at those depicted. This show avoids both, creating a representation of advantaged millennial living that’s frank about the chaos and the glamour.
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
