The performer appears on the online meeting and at once starts an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, seeming genuinely regretful. Despite being only a bit late, she wants to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, during an interview, that’s exactly what you want to hear. Additionally, it’s quite predictable. Those familiar with her boldly queer and unapologetically crass project titled Bottoms—which she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and appeared in alongside collaborator Ayo Edebiri—can understand that she has a lot to say, ranging from about identity, intimacy, or the pros of forming a youth brawl society. Furthermore, once you finish her recent eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she holds even more insights about the struggles of Gen Z life (As a millennial, Sennott represents a relatable figure to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial adept for connecting different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, naming the show alongside the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as guides for the project, which details the travails of a social media star Tallulah and ally and aspiring agent Sennott’s character. However, the largest presence on creative vision was reserved for the HBO series, that show focusing on an up-and-coming A-list actor succeeding in a gritty Hollywood (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She began viewing it throughout lockdown, became “hooked”, and chose 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 notes. The idea for the series originated—partly—from her own, at first difficult, move to Los Angeles and from the astrological phase, a popular event for enthusiasts. This represented a phase that saw her understand some big truths, professionally and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Starting Out
Raised in New England, the star commenced developing and showcasing stand-up while studying theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, appearing at amateur nights with Edebiri and sharing hysterical (and very) unconventional online content online. One, Baby Cult, depicted several females intensely obsessed with having babies; another portrayed working at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being stuck in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she met Seligman through campus film circles and ended up featuring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her journey, she notes, has been people her own age offering opportunities, instead of the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, continuing humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Rising Success
Those who were skeptical regarding her then will surely be feeling foolish now. Through she labels a “astonishingly complete” story, she has created the perfect project. A few years back she uploaded a video named on LA life online, in which she lampooned film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a series about city dwellers balancing advantages of internet fame (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your friend being labeled as being a drug-addled stealer, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). It would be easy to produce a series about online fame that was horribly idealized—or, worse, one that punched down at those depicted. This show does neither, making for a portrait of privileged millennial life that’s candid about the chaos 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 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
