The performer enters the video call and immediately starts an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, sounding genuinely remorseful. Although she's only a couple of minutes delayed, she wants to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s just what is ideal to hear. Moreover, it’s quite predictable. Viewers who know her unapologetically LGBTQ+ and outspoken film titled Bottoms—that she penned with Emma Seligman and featured in with collaborator the talented actress—would already know that Sennott holds a lot to say, ranging from on identity, intimacy, or the appeal of starting a high-school fight club. Plus, once you finish her recent eight-part program I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds further thoughts regarding the struggles of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, Sennott represents a relatable figure of the gang, straddling eras with a knack for straddling different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and the actress readily acknowledges enthusiastic, referencing the show together with Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as guides for her series, which details the travails of an influencer Tallulah and her friend and aspiring talent manager Maia. However, the biggest presence on creative vision went to the HBO series, the show focusing on an emerging A-list actor navigating in a gritty Hollywood (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it throughout the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and resolved to add a fresh perspective on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she explains. The inspiration for this project originated—partly—from her own, at first difficult, relocation to Los Angeles and from the astrological phase, a much-talked-about event for followers. That period marked a time that saw her grasp some big insights, in her career 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…”
Starting Out
Brought up in the East Coast, Sennott started developing and showcasing comedy while enrolled in acting at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
She seized control, taking the stage at amateur nights with her friend and sharing hysterical (and very) unconventional comedy videos digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women obsessively drawn to having babies; another imagined working at the brand Hollister as akin to being trapped in a horror film. Interestingly, she encountered Seligman through the university’s film scene and eventually appearing in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a religious event with hints of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her journey, she notes, has been peers giving her a shot, as opposed to traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, continuing amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Manifesting Dreams
Individuals who were skeptical about her then will certainly be kicking themselves today. In what she labels a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she seems to have manifested an ideal role. In 2019 she posted a video called about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she mocked film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about Angelenos managing advantages of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being accused of being a intoxicated criminal, and perhaps becoming a unreliable pariah). It would be simple to produce a series about online fame that was extremely glamorous—or, worse, one that belittled at its subjects. This show avoids both, making for a portrait of affluent young adult life that’s candid about the chaos and the shine.
Nuanced Portrayal
“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
