The actress and writer discussing her side-splitting show portraying that grotty glamour of Gen Z lifestyle
The star enters the digital interview and at once launches into an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, sounding truly regretful. Despite being only a couple of minutes behind, she wants to justify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s just what one hopes to encounter. Besides, it’s pretty expected. Those who know her fearlessly LGBTQ+ and brash film Bottoms—which Sennott collaborated on with the director and appeared in together with close companion Ayo Edebiri—will already know that Sennott has plenty to say, be it on gender, sex, or the pros of starting a teen brawl society. And, by the end her recent eight-part show I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she has even more perspectives about the struggles of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, Sennott represents a bridge for this generation, straddling eras with a knack for connecting both generations).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, citing the show alongside the HBO hit, Insecure and the innovative program as influences for the project, which follows the travails of an influencer Tallulah and her friend who is also aspiring talent manager portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the most significant influence on concept belonged to the HBO series, that HBO sitcom depicting an emerging celebrity navigating in an often-seedy LA scene (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She discovered it amid lockdown, became “obsessed”, and resolved to create a new version 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 notes. The idea for I Love LA emerged—to some extent—from personal, originally rocky, transition to Tinseltown and from the cosmic event, a much-talked-about event for enthusiasts. This represented a phase that involved her understand some big insights, professionally and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Starting Out
Raised in New England, Sennott began creating and acting humor while enrolled in acting at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She decided to act independently, taking the stage at live shows with Ayo and uploading hysterical (and very) unconventional online content online. One, titled Baby Cult, followed characters fetishistically obsessed with motherhood; a different one imagined being employed at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being trapped in a thriller. By chance, she met Emma through campus film circles and eventually appearing in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a Jewish wake with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her career, she says, has been people her own age offering opportunities, as opposed to established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, stating amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Individuals who were skeptical regarding Sennott then will surely be regretting it today. In what she describes as a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she has achieved her dream vehicle. A few years back she posted content called about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she parodied movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a show about Angelenos balancing advantages of digital stardom (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your friend being suspected of being a intoxicated thief, and potentially becoming a risky persona non grata). It would be easy to produce a series about online fame that was horribly glamorous—or, worse, one that mocked at the characters. This show does neither, resulting in a portrait of advantaged twentysomething life that’s honest about the mess and the shine.
Balanced Perspective
“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
