The star enters the digital interview and right away begins an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, appearing genuinely regretful. She is only slightly delayed, she wants to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, for a writer, this is just what one hopes to experience. Additionally, it’s pretty predictable. Those who know the unapologetically queer and outspoken film titled Bottoms—that she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and starred in alongside close companion Ayo Edebiri—would already know that she holds much to discuss, ranging from about gender, sex, or the appeal of starting a youth fight club. Furthermore, by the end her latest multi-episode program titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she carries even more insights on the challenges of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, she represents an honorary member to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial with a knack for straddling both generations).
Influences and Artistic Direction
Parallels to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott readily acknowledges enthusiastic, naming the show in addition to the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as inspirations for the project, which details the journey of online personality Tallulah and her friend and new talent manager portrayed by Sennott. However, the largest presence on creative vision was reserved for Entourage, the show about an emerging Hollywood star succeeding in a corrupt LA scene (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She began viewing it amid the pandemic, 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 explains. The idea for the series originated—partly—from her own, at first rocky, relocation to LA and from her astrological phase, a frequently discussed occurrence for followers. That period marked an era that included her grasp some big truths, in her career and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Humble Origins
Raised in New England, the star began writing and performing stand-up while enrolled in theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She decided to act independently, taking the stage at amateur nights with her friend and uploading hysterical (and distinctly) bizarre skits digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, followed a group of women fetishistically obsessed with having babies; a different one imagined working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being stuck in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Seligman through the university’s film scene and ended up featuring in her first film, Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a religious event with echoes of the intense thriller. The big theme of her career, she says, has been people her own age giving her a shot, instead of the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, continuing with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who had doubts about Sennott earlier will likely be kicking themselves now. In what she calls a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she appears to created an ideal role. In 2019 she posted a clip named on LA life on the internet, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a comedy about LA residents managing the perks of online celebrity (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your client being suspected of being a drug-addled stealer, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). One might simple to create a series about online fame that was extremely glamorous—or, worse, one that mocked at the characters. This show does neither, making for a representation of advantaged young adult life that’s candid about the mess and the shine.
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 observes. “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
