The star appears on the video call and right away begins an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, appearing genuinely remorseful. Despite being only a bit behind, she needs to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, during an interview, this is exactly what one hopes to encounter. Besides, it’s fairly unsurprising. Those who know her fearlessly queer and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—that she penned with the director and appeared in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—will be aware that she holds much to say, whether on roles, intimacy, or the appeal of starting a teen brawl society. And, once you finish the latest seasonal show I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star has additional insights regarding the struggles of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, she is an honorary member for this generation, on the cusp skilled for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and the actress admits to being an admirer, referencing the show together with Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as guides for I Love LA, which details the travails of an influencer Tallulah and her friend and aspiring talent manager Maia. Perhaps, the biggest influence on concept went to the HBO series, that program about an up-and-coming Hollywood star succeeding in a gritty Hollywood (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it amid lockdown, became “obsessed”, and chose to create a new version 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 inspiration for the series emerged—partly—from personal, originally difficult, move to Tinseltown and from her cosmic event, a popular event for followers. It was a phase that included her learn significant insights, in her career and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in the East Coast, the star commenced creating and acting comedy while enrolled in theatre 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?”
Sennott decided to act independently, appearing at amateur nights with Edebiri and sharing uproarious (and very) bizarre comedy videos on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on characters intensely drawn to pregnancy; another imagined working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being stuck in a horror film. By chance, she connected with Seligman through NYU’s movie community and eventually starring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a Jewish wake with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her path, she says, has been peers supporting her, rather than established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she confirms, stating amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who were skeptical regarding her then will likely be regretting it currently. In what she calls a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she seems to have created her dream vehicle. In 2019 she posted a video titled about Los Angeles on social media, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a comedy about city dwellers juggling benefits of online celebrity (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your friend being labeled as being a intoxicated criminal, and possibly becoming a risky persona non grata). Some could tempting to produce a program about online fame that was extremely aspirational—or, worse, one that mocked at its subjects. I Love LA avoids both, resulting in a portrait of privileged young adult life that’s frank about the chaos and the appeal.
Empathetic Approach
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
