The star joins the video call and right away starts an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, seeming truly remorseful. Although she's only a couple of minutes delayed, she feels compelled to justify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, for a writer, that’s precisely what one hopes to experience. Additionally, it’s pretty predictable. Those who have seen her boldly queer and brash project titled Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with the director and starred in together with collaborator The Bear’s standout—can understand that she possesses a lot to discuss, whether about gender, intimacy, or the appeal of forming a youth fight club. And, after watching her recent multi-episode program titled I Love LA, it is clear that she has additional perspectives regarding the challenges of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott serves as an honorary member for this generation, straddling eras skilled for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott admits to being a fan, citing it in addition to the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as guides for the project, which tracks the journey of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and new agent Maia. Perhaps, the most significant influence on the moodboard went to the HBO series, that show focusing on an up-and-coming celebrity navigating in a corrupt LA scene (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She discovered it during lockdown, became “captivated”, and resolved to create a new version 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 says. The idea for this project originated—in part—from firsthand, originally rocky, relocation to LA and from the saturn return, a frequently discussed event for followers. That period marked a time that involved her learn some big insights, in her career and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “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 …”
Starting Out
Raised in the East Coast, the star started writing and performing humor while studying performance 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. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She seized control, performing at live shows with Edebiri and posting hysterical (and distinctly) bizarre online content online. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on several females intensely obsessed with having babies; another envisioned being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being stuck in a thriller. Interestingly, she connected with Seligman through campus film circles and ended up starring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a religious event with shades of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her journey, she explains, has been contemporaries supporting her, instead of the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, adding humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who questioned regarding her earlier will likely be feeling foolish now. In what she calls a “incredibly circular” development, she appears to achieved an ideal role. In 2019 she uploaded a video named on LA life on the internet, in which she parodied movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a series about city dwellers balancing benefits of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being suspected of being a substance-abusing criminal, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). It would be simple to create a program about online fame that was horribly aspirational—or, more problematic, one that punched down at the characters. This show avoids both, creating a portrait of advantaged twentysomething life that’s candid about the chaos and the glamour.
Empathetic Approach
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
