The performer appears on the online meeting and at once starts an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, sounding genuinely regretful. Although she's only slightly late, she feels compelled to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, for a writer, this is exactly what is ideal to encounter. Moreover, it’s pretty expected. Anyone familiar with her unapologetically openly gay and brash movie titled Bottoms—that she penned with her creative partner and appeared in alongside collaborator The Bear’s standout—will already know that Sennott holds plenty to discuss, be it on identity, sex, or the pros of forming a youth combat group. Furthermore, by the end the recent multi-episode HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries further insights on the struggles of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, she is a relatable figure to younger audiences, on the cusp skilled for bridging different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and Sennott admits to being a fan, naming it alongside the HBO hit, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as influences for the project, which tracks the struggles of online personality Tallulah and ally and new talent manager Maia. However, the largest influence on creative vision went to the popular sitcom, that program about an up-and-coming A-list actor succeeding in an often-seedy entertainment industry (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it during COVID-19, became “captivated”, and decided to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she explains. The inspiration for the series came—to some extent—from personal, initially fractious, relocation to LA and from the cosmic event, a popular occurrence for astrology heads. It was a phase that saw her grasp some big insights, work-wise 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 resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Starting Out
Raised in Connecticut, Sennott started creating and acting 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 states. “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. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She decided to act independently, taking the stage at amateur nights with Ayo and sharing uproarious (and distinctly) bizarre comedy videos online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, followed characters intensely drawn to having babies; another imagined working at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being trapped in a horror film. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through campus film circles and eventually featuring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a religious event with hints of the intense thriller. The central motif of her path, she explains, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, as opposed to traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she repeats, continuing with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who were skeptical regarding Sennott earlier will surely be regretting it today. Through she describes as a “wild, full-circle” story, she seems to have created the perfect project. Previously she uploaded a video named about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she mocked film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a series about city dwellers managing benefits of internet fame (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being suspected of being a substance-abusing thief, and possibly becoming a risky outcast). It would be tempting to make a program about digital influence that was extremely glamorous—or, worse, one that mocked at the characters. The series does neither, resulting in a portrait of affluent young adult existence that’s frank about the grot and the appeal.
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
