The actress and writer discussing her side-splitting show depicting the grotty allure of today's youth lifestyle
The star enters the video call and immediately begins an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, appearing genuinely apologetic. She is only a bit late, she feels compelled to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, in this context, this is exactly what one hopes to encounter. Besides, it’s pretty predictable. Viewers who know her fearlessly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—that she collaborated on with her creative partner and featured in together with close companion Ayo Edebiri—would already know that she has much to say, whether about roles, relationships, or the merits of creating a youth brawl society. Furthermore, after watching her latest seasonal program titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star holds additional thoughts on the darker side of modern youth (At 30, she represents a relatable figure of the gang, a tale-end millennial adept for straddling different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and the actress admits to being enthusiastic, referencing it together with the classic series, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for I Love LA, which follows the journey of online personality Tallulah and her friend and fledgling agent Maia. However, the biggest presence on the moodboard went to Entourage, that show about an emerging celebrity making his way in a corrupt Hollywood (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott started watching it amid the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and chose to create a new version on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she explains. The concept for the series came—partly—from firsthand, originally fractious, move to Tinseltown and from the cosmic event, a much-talked-about event for enthusiasts. It was a time that included her grasp some big life lessons, in her career and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Raised in Connecticut, the star began creating and acting comedy while enrolled in performance at NYU’s Tisch. “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. 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 took matters into her own hands, performing at open mics with Edebiri and uploading hilarious (and distinctly) weird online content digitally. One, Baby Cult, followed several females intensely obsessed with pregnancy; a different one envisioned being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being caught in a scary movie. By chance, she connected with Emma through NYU’s movie community and ultimately featuring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a Jewish wake with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her journey, she says, has been peers giving her a shot, instead of the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, stating humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who were skeptical about Sennott previously will surely be feeling foolish today. In what she describes as a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she appears to achieved the perfect project. In 2019 she uploaded content named on LA life on the internet, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a show about LA residents managing the perks of digital stardom (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your client being labeled as being a intoxicated thief, and perhaps becoming a risky persona non grata). Some could simple to make a show about online fame that was extremely aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at the characters. The series avoids both, making for a depiction of advantaged twentysomething living that’s candid about the chaos and the shine.
Nuanced Portrayal
“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