The star enters the video call and right away launches into an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, sounding genuinely remorseful. Despite being only a bit late, she feels compelled to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, during an interview, that’s just what is ideal to experience. Besides, it’s pretty predictable. Anyone who have seen the fearlessly LGBTQ+ and outspoken project Bottoms—which she co-wrote with Emma Seligman and featured in alongside close companion The Bear’s standout—can understand that she holds plenty to share, whether about identity, relationships, or the pros of starting a youth brawl society. And, after watching the latest seasonal HBO series titled I Love LA, it is clear that she carries further perspectives on the darker side of modern youth (At 30, she represents a bridge to younger audiences, on the cusp with a knack for bridging both generations).
Influences and Creative Vision
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and the actress is enthusiastic, referencing it together with the classic series, Insecure and Atlanta as guides for the project, which details the journey of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and new agent Maia. Notably, the most significant presence on concept went to the popular sitcom, the HBO sitcom about a rising A-list actor navigating in a gritty Hollywood (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She started watching it amid lockdown, became “obsessed”, and decided to add a fresh perspective 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 came—to some extent—from personal, originally fractious, transition to Los Angeles and from her cosmic event, a much-talked-about phenomenon for enthusiasts. This represented an era that saw her understand major life lessons, in her career and in private life. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she says. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Humble Origins
Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott began developing and showcasing stand-up while pursuing performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott decided to act independently, performing at amateur nights with Ayo and posting hilarious (and decidedly) bizarre comedy videos online. One, titled Baby Cult, followed several females obsessively drawn to having babies; a different one portrayed working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being stuck in a scary movie. By chance, she met Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually starring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the intense thriller. The central motif of her career, she says, has been people her own age giving her a shot, rather than established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, stating humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who had doubts regarding her earlier will surely be regretting it now. In what she describes as a “astonishingly complete” story, she has manifested the perfect project. Previously she shared a clip titled “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a series about city dwellers juggling benefits of internet fame (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being labeled as being a drug-addled criminal, and potentially becoming a risky pariah). One might easy to make a series about internet celebrity that was overly aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at the characters. The series steers clear of each, resulting in a representation of advantaged twentysomething existence 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
