The star joins the online meeting and at once starts an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, seeming truly apologetic. Despite being only a couple of minutes delayed, she feels compelled to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, during an interview, that’s exactly what you want to encounter. Additionally, it’s fairly predictable. Anyone familiar with her boldly queer and unapologetically crass project Bottoms—which she penned with her creative partner and starred in together with close companion the talented actress—will understand that Sennott holds much to discuss, be it on gender, sex, or the appeal of starting a teen fight club. Furthermore, once you finish the new seasonal program I Love LA, it is clear that she has further thoughts about the challenges of Gen Z life (As a millennial, she is a bridge for this generation, on the cusp adept for bridging both generations).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and Sennott is an admirer, referencing it together with the HBO hit, Insecure and the innovative program as inspirations for the project, which details the struggles of online personality Tallulah and close companion and aspiring representative Sennott’s character. Notably, the biggest presence on creative vision belonged to the HBO series, that show about a rising A-list actor making his way in a corrupt Hollywood (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott discovered it throughout the pandemic, became “hooked”, and decided 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 idea for this project came—to some extent—from her own, originally rocky, transition to Los Angeles and from the cosmic event, a much-talked-about occurrence for enthusiasts. It was a time that included her grasp some big truths, professionally and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Humble Origins
Growing up in the East Coast, the star commenced creating and acting comedy while enrolled in theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she explains. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott decided to act independently, taking the stage at amateur nights with her friend and uploading hysterical (and very) weird online content digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on a group of women fetishistically fixated on having babies; another imagined working at the brand Hollister as like being stuck in a scary movie. By chance, she connected with Emma through campus film circles and ended up starring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her career, she explains, has been peers supporting her, rather than the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she confirms, continuing amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Individuals who questioned regarding Sennott then will likely be regretting it currently. In what she labels a “wild, full-circle” story, she seems to have achieved her dream vehicle. In 2019 she uploaded content named on LA life on social media, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a series about Angelenos juggling advantages of online celebrity (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your friend being accused of being a drug-addled thief, and perhaps becoming a risky persona non grata). It would be tempting to create a show about internet celebrity that was overly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at its subjects. This show steers clear of each, making for a depiction of affluent twentysomething life that’s frank about the mess 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
