The star joins the online meeting and immediately starts an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, appearing truly apologetic. Despite being only a bit behind, she wants to clarify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, for a writer, this is just what is ideal to encounter. Moreover, it’s pretty unsurprising. Anyone who have seen her fearlessly openly gay and unapologetically crass movie Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with the director and appeared in together with collaborator the talented actress—would understand that she holds much to share, be it about roles, sex, or the pros of starting a high-school fight club. And, after watching her new multi-episode program I Love LA, viewers realize that the star holds further insights about the struggles of young adulthood (As a millennial, she serves as an honorary member to younger audiences, on the cusp with a knack for bridging different age groups).
Influences and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and the actress admits to being enthusiastic, naming it together with the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as inspirations for the project, which tracks the struggles of a social media star Tallulah and her friend and aspiring agent portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the largest influence on creative vision was reserved for the HBO series, the HBO sitcom about an emerging A-list actor succeeding in a corrupt LA scene (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She began viewing it during lockdown, became “hooked”, and resolved 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 says. The idea for the series emerged—to some extent—from her own, originally rocky, relocation to LA and from the cosmic event, a much-talked-about event for followers. This represented a time that involved her learn significant insights, in her career and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in New England, the star began creating and acting stand-up while pursuing theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott seized control, appearing at amateur nights with her friend and posting hysterical (and decidedly) weird comedy videos on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted characters intensely fixated on pregnancy; a different one portrayed working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being caught in a horror film. By chance, she connected with Seligman through campus film circles and ultimately appearing in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her career, she says, has been people her own age giving her a shot, rather than the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, stating amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who had doubts about her previously will certainly be feeling foolish now. In what she calls a “incredibly circular” story, she has created the perfect project. In 2019 she posted a clip titled about Los Angeles online, in which she parodied movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a series about city dwellers managing benefits of online celebrity (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your client being suspected of being a intoxicated stealer, and perhaps becoming a risky persona non grata). It would be tempting to make a series about digital influence that was horribly aspirational—or, more problematic, one that belittled at those depicted. I Love LA avoids both, resulting in a depiction of privileged millennial living that’s frank about the chaos and the shine.
Empathetic Approach
“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
