The performer enters the online meeting and right away launches into an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, seeming genuinely remorseful. Although she's only slightly behind, she wants to justify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, during an interview, this is just what you want to experience. Moreover, it’s pretty predictable. Those who have seen the unapologetically queer and brash film titled Bottoms—which Sennott collaborated on with her creative partner and starred in alongside collaborator the talented actress—would already know that she holds much to say, be it on roles, sex, or the merits of starting a youth fight club. Plus, after watching her new seasonal program titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she has further perspectives on the challenges of Gen Z life (As a millennial, she serves as a bridge for this generation, a tale-end millennial skilled for connecting different age groups).
Influences and Creative Vision
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and the actress admits to being a fan, referencing the show together with Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as guides for the project, which tracks the struggles of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion and new talent manager portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the most significant presence on creative vision was reserved for Entourage, the HBO sitcom depicting an emerging A-list actor navigating in a corrupt LA scene (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it during lockdown, became “captivated”, and decided to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she explains. The inspiration for the series emerged—to some extent—from personal, at first rocky, relocation to LA and from the astrological phase, a popular phenomenon for astrology heads. This represented a phase that involved her understand major truths, work-wise and in private life. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Humble Origins
Brought up in the East Coast, Sennott started creating and acting humor while studying 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. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott seized control, performing at live shows with Edebiri and uploading hysterical (and very) unconventional online content digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on a group of women obsessively drawn to pregnancy; a different one imagined being employed at a trendy retail outlet as like being stuck in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually featuring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a religious event with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her journey, she notes, has been people her own age supporting her, as opposed to established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, adding with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who had doubts about her earlier will certainly be feeling foolish now. Through she labels a “incredibly circular” development, she seems to have created her dream vehicle. In 2019 she shared a video titled “it’s LA” on social media, in which she mocked movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a show about Angelenos managing the perks of digital stardom (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your associate being suspected of being a substance-abusing thief, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). It would be simple to produce a program about internet celebrity that was overly aspirational—or, worse, one that punched down at the characters. This show does neither, making for a portrait of affluent young adult living that’s frank about the chaos and the shine.
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
