The performer joins the video call and right away begins an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, seeming really remorseful. She is only a couple of minutes late, she wants to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, in this context, that’s just what you want to encounter. Moreover, it’s pretty expected. Viewers who know the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and brash movie titled Bottoms—which she co-wrote with the director and appeared in together with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—would be aware that she possesses plenty to say, be it about identity, relationships, or the pros of starting a teen fight club. And, after watching the new seasonal HBO series titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star carries further insights regarding the darker side of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott serves as an honorary member for this generation, a tale-end millennial adept for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Creative Vision
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and the actress admits to being an admirer, referencing the show together with Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as inspirations for her series, which tracks the travails of a social media star Tallulah and her friend who is also aspiring talent manager Maia. Notably, the most significant influence on creative vision belonged to the HBO series, that program depicting a rising Hollywood star making his way in a corrupt Hollywood (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott started watching it throughout COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and chose to add a fresh perspective on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she notes. The inspiration for this project emerged—in part—from firsthand, originally difficult, transition to Los Angeles and from the cosmic event, a popular phenomenon for followers. It was a phase that saw her learn major insights, professionally and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Humble Origins
Raised in Connecticut, Sennott began writing and performing comedy while pursuing performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. 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?”
Sennott seized control, appearing at open mics with Ayo and posting hilarious (and very) weird online content on the internet. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on characters intensely drawn to having babies; a different one portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being trapped in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up appearing in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a religious event with shades of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her path, she says, has been peers offering opportunities, rather than the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, continuing with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who were skeptical about Sennott then will surely be kicking themselves currently. Through she calls a “astonishingly complete” development, she has created an ideal role. A few years back she uploaded a video called about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a show about LA residents juggling benefits of digital stardom (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being labeled as being a drug-addled thief, and potentially becoming a risky persona non grata). It would be tempting to create a show about online fame that was horribly aspirational—or, worse, one that punched down at its subjects. This show does neither, creating a depiction of privileged twentysomething living that’s candid about the grot and the appeal.
Balanced Perspective
“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
