The star appears on the digital interview and right away starts an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, appearing genuinely apologetic. She is only slightly late, she wants to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, in this context, this is precisely what you want to hear. Additionally, it’s pretty unsurprising. Those familiar with her boldly queer and outspoken project titled Bottoms—that Sennott penned with Emma Seligman and appeared in with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—will already know that she has a lot to say, ranging from on identity, sex, or the appeal of creating a teen fight club. Furthermore, once you finish the latest multi-episode HBO series titled I Love LA, viewers realize that the star holds additional insights about the challenges of modern youth (Now in her thirties, Sennott is an honorary member for this generation, straddling eras with a knack for connecting different age groups).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and Sennott is an admirer, naming it alongside the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as guides for I Love LA, which follows the journey of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also aspiring talent manager Maia. However, the largest presence on creative vision went to the HBO series, the program depicting an up-and-coming Hollywood star succeeding in a gritty Hollywood (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott began viewing it throughout COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and decided to put her own twist on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The idea for this project came—partly—from personal, at first rocky, move to Los Angeles and from the astrological phase, a much-talked-about event for astrology heads. It was a phase that involved her learn major life lessons, work-wise and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “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…”
Early Beginnings
Raised in the East Coast, Sennott began developing and showcasing stand-up while enrolled in acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott decided to act independently, taking the stage at live shows with Ayo and uploading hysterical (and distinctly) weird online content on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted characters obsessively obsessed with motherhood; another imagined working at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being stuck in a thriller. Interestingly, she connected with Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ended up featuring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the intense thriller. The big theme of her career, she explains, has been contemporaries supporting her, instead of the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she repeats, stating with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who questioned about her then will certainly be feeling foolish now. Through she describes as a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she appears to achieved the perfect project. A few years back she uploaded content named about Los Angeles online, in which she mocked movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a series about city dwellers juggling the perks of digital stardom (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being suspected of being a drug-addled stealer, and potentially becoming a risky pariah). It would be tempting to produce a series about internet celebrity that was extremely idealized—or, worse, one that mocked at those depicted. The series steers clear of each, creating a portrait of affluent young adult existence that’s honest about the grot and the shine.
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
