The star enters the digital interview and right away begins an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, sounding truly apologetic. Despite being only a bit behind, she needs to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, during an interview, this is precisely what you want to hear. Besides, it’s pretty expected. Those familiar with the unapologetically queer and outspoken movie Bottoms—which she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and appeared in together with collaborator The Bear’s standout—will be aware that Sennott possesses plenty to say, whether about identity, intimacy, or the pros of creating a youth combat group. And, by the end her recent multi-episode HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that she holds even more insights about the challenges of young adulthood (As a millennial, she is an honorary member of the gang, straddling eras skilled for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and the actress is a fan, naming it together with Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as inspirations for the project, which details the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also aspiring talent manager Maia. However, the biggest presence on creative vision went to the popular sitcom, the show depicting an emerging A-list actor navigating in a gritty Hollywood (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She discovered it amid COVID-19, became “hooked”, and decided to put her own twist on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The inspiration for this project emerged—to some extent—from her own, at first difficult, relocation to LA and from her saturn return, a much-talked-about phenomenon for astrology heads. This represented a phase that included her understand major life lessons, in her career and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” 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 …”
Humble Origins
Growing up in New England, the star started writing and performing comedy while studying performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” 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. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott decided to act independently, performing at live shows with her friend and posting uproarious (and decidedly) unconventional online content digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, followed a group of women fetishistically drawn to pregnancy; a different one envisioned being employed at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being caught in a horror film. By chance, she connected with Emma through the university’s film scene and ended up starring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a funeral gathering with hints of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her path, she notes, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, instead of established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she confirms, stating amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Those who had doubts regarding her earlier will surely be regretting it now. Through she describes as a “wild, full-circle” story, she has manifested an ideal role. A few years back she shared a video called “it’s LA” online, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a show about city dwellers balancing benefits of digital stardom (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your client being suspected of being a drug-addled thief, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). Some could simple to produce a show about online fame that was overly idealized—or, worse, one that mocked at those depicted. This show steers clear of each, creating a portrait of privileged young adult life that’s honest about the mess and the glamour.
Balanced Perspective
“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
