The actress and writer discussing her hilarious series portraying the chaotic allure of Gen Z existence
The performer enters the digital interview and immediately starts an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, appearing truly remorseful. Despite being only slightly late, she needs to explain. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, in this context, this is just what you want to experience. Additionally, it’s fairly expected. Viewers who have seen the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and outspoken film Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and appeared in together with her friend The Bear’s standout—can understand that Sennott has much to say, be it about roles, sex, or the merits of starting a high-school combat group. And, by the end her recent seasonal program I Love LA, it is clear that she holds additional thoughts on the struggles of Gen Z life (As a millennial, she serves as a bridge of the gang, straddling eras skilled for bridging different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress is an admirer, naming it together with the HBO hit, Insecure and Atlanta as guides for I Love LA, which follows the travails of online personality Tallulah and close companion and fledgling representative Maia. However, the largest influence on concept was reserved for Entourage, that program depicting an up-and-coming A-list actor making his way in an often-seedy entertainment industry (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She began viewing it amid lockdown, became “obsessed”, and resolved to create a new version on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she notes. The concept for this project emerged—partly—from firsthand, originally fractious, move to Los Angeles and from the cosmic event, a much-talked-about occurrence for followers. That period marked a time that involved her learn significant truths, in her career and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “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…”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott began developing and showcasing humor while studying performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she explains. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott seized control, taking the stage at live shows with Ayo and posting hysterical (and very) weird online content online. One, Baby Cult, depicted a group of women intensely obsessed with pregnancy; another portrayed being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being stuck in a scary movie. By chance, she encountered Seligman through campus film circles and eventually starring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her path, she says, has been people her own age supporting her, rather than traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, continuing humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who were skeptical regarding Sennott earlier will certainly be feeling foolish now. In what she labels a “wild, full-circle” development, she seems to have manifested the perfect project. Previously she shared a clip named on LA life online, in which she parodied movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about city dwellers balancing advantages of digital stardom (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being suspected of being a drug-addled stealer, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). One might tempting to make a series about digital influence that was extremely glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at its subjects. This show does neither, resulting in a depiction of affluent young adult living that’s honest about the grot and the glamour.
Empathetic Approach
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
