The actress and writer discussing the uproarious comedy depicting the messy allure of today's youth existence
The star enters the video call and right away launches into an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, appearing truly remorseful. Despite being only a bit behind, she wants to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, in this context, that’s precisely what you want to experience. Moreover, it’s quite unsurprising. Anyone who have seen the fearlessly openly gay and brash movie Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and featured in with her friend The Bear’s standout—would understand that she possesses plenty to say, whether on gender, intimacy, or the appeal of starting a teen fight club. Furthermore, after watching the latest seasonal HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that she has even more insights about the darker side of young adulthood (As a millennial, Sennott is an honorary member to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial with a knack for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and the actress is a fan, citing the show together with the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as inspirations for the project, which tracks the struggles of a social media star Tallulah and close companion who is also new representative Sennott’s character. However, the biggest spot on concept went to the popular sitcom, that HBO sitcom focusing on an up-and-coming A-list actor making his way in an often-seedy LA scene (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott started watching it throughout lockdown, became “captivated”, and chose to put her own twist 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 concept for I Love LA emerged—partly—from personal, initially rocky, move to Los Angeles and from the saturn return, a much-talked-about event for enthusiasts. That period marked a time that involved her grasp major insights, in her career 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.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Humble Origins
Growing up in the East Coast, Sennott started writing and performing humor while pursuing performance at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” 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?”
She took matters into her own hands, appearing at amateur nights with her friend and uploading hilarious (and very) unconventional comedy videos online. One, titled Baby Cult, followed a group of women intensely drawn to pregnancy; a different one envisioned working at the brand Hollister as similar to being caught in a thriller. Interestingly, she connected with Seligman through campus film circles and eventually featuring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a religious event with echoes of the intense thriller. The central motif of her journey, she explains, has been peers offering opportunities, instead of the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, adding amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who were skeptical regarding her previously will surely be feeling foolish currently. In what she labels a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she has created an ideal role. In 2019 she shared content titled about Los Angeles online, in which she mocked film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a comedy about city dwellers juggling the perks of digital stardom (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being suspected of being a drug-addled thief, and possibly becoming a unreliable outcast). It would be easy to produce a show about online fame that was overly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at the characters. The series avoids both, making for a representation of advantaged twentysomething living that’s honest about the grot and the glamour.
Empathetic Approach
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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