The actress and writer discussing the side-splitting series about that grotty glamour of today's youth existence
The star appears on the online meeting and right away launches into an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, sounding really remorseful. She is only a couple of minutes late, she needs to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, for a writer, that’s just what one hopes to experience. Additionally, it’s pretty expected. Anyone familiar with the unapologetically queer and brash movie Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with Emma Seligman and starred in alongside collaborator The Bear’s standout—will be aware that she holds plenty to say, be it about gender, relationships, or the pros of starting a high-school brawl society. Furthermore, once you finish her recent eight-part show titled I Love LA, it is clear that she carries additional insights on the darker side of young adulthood (At 30, she represents a relatable figure for this generation, on the cusp with a knack for straddling both generations).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and the actress readily acknowledges enthusiastic, naming the show in addition to the classic series, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as influences for the project, which details the journey of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and fledgling agent Maia. Notably, the biggest presence on the moodboard went to the popular sitcom, the show focusing on a rising A-list actor succeeding in an often-seedy entertainment industry (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She began viewing it amid COVID-19, became “hooked”, and resolved to create a new version on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she explains. The idea for the series emerged—to some extent—from her own, at first fractious, transition to LA and from the cosmic event, a much-talked-about event for followers. This represented an era that saw her understand significant insights, work-wise and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Humble Origins
Brought up in New England, the star started writing and performing comedy while pursuing acting at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott seized control, performing at amateur nights with Ayo and sharing uproarious (and decidedly) bizarre skits digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on several females fetishistically obsessed with motherhood; a different one imagined working at a trendy retail outlet as like being trapped in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she met Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ended up featuring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a religious event with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her journey, she explains, has been people her own age giving her a shot, as opposed to the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, continuing amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Those who were skeptical regarding Sennott earlier will surely be regretting it today. In what she labels a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she has manifested an ideal role. In 2019 she posted a clip titled on LA life on social media, in which she mocked film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a show about city dwellers managing advantages of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being suspected of being a substance-abusing thief, and perhaps becoming a unreliable outcast). Some could easy to create a series about internet celebrity that was overly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at its subjects. The series avoids both, resulting in a depiction of affluent twentysomething existence that’s candid about the grot and the appeal.
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