The star joins the online meeting and immediately starts an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, sounding genuinely apologetic. She is only a couple of minutes delayed, she feels compelled to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s precisely what you want to encounter. Besides, it’s quite expected. Those familiar with the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and brash project titled Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with her creative partner and starred in together with close companion the talented actress—can be aware that Sennott possesses plenty to share, ranging from about identity, sex, or the merits of forming a high-school brawl society. Furthermore, after watching the new multi-episode HBO series titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she holds even more thoughts on the challenges of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, she is a bridge of the gang, on the cusp adept for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, naming the show together with the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as guides for her series, which follows the journey of online personality Tallulah and close companion and aspiring agent portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the largest presence on the moodboard belonged to the HBO series, the show focusing on an emerging Hollywood star navigating in an often-seedy Hollywood (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She started watching it amid the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and resolved to create a new version on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she says. The concept for this project emerged—partly—from personal, initially difficult, transition to Tinseltown and from the cosmic event, a frequently discussed event for followers. It was a phase that included her learn some big insights, work-wise and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in New England, Sennott began creating and acting humor while enrolled in performance at a prestigious arts school. “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 took matters into her own hands, appearing at amateur nights with her friend and uploading uproarious (and very) weird skits on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted several females obsessively drawn to pregnancy; another envisioned being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being caught in a horror film. By chance, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up starring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a Jewish wake with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her career, she says, has been peers supporting her, instead of traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, continuing humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Individuals who were skeptical about Sennott earlier will certainly be feeling foolish today. Through she calls a “incredibly circular” development, she has manifested an ideal role. A few years back she posted a clip called “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she parodied movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a show about LA residents balancing benefits of digital stardom (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your client being labeled as being a substance-abusing thief, and potentially becoming a risky persona non grata). Some could easy to make a show about online fame that was horribly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at those depicted. I Love LA avoids both, resulting in a representation of advantaged twentysomething living that’s candid about the grot and the glamour.
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 comments. “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
