The performer enters the digital interview and immediately starts an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, sounding genuinely regretful. She is only a couple of minutes delayed, she needs to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, during an interview, this is precisely what you want to experience. Moreover, it’s quite expected. Anyone familiar with her unapologetically openly gay and outspoken film Bottoms—which she collaborated on with the director and featured in alongside collaborator The Bear’s standout—can be aware that she possesses much to discuss, whether about roles, intimacy, or the pros of starting a youth brawl society. Plus, after watching the latest seasonal HBO series I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she carries additional thoughts about the challenges of Gen Z life (At 30, she represents a bridge to younger audiences, straddling eras adept for connecting both generations).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
Parallels to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and the actress admits to being enthusiastic, naming the show together with Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for I Love LA, which details the travails of online personality Tallulah and close companion who is also fledgling representative Maia. However, the biggest presence on creative vision was reserved for the HBO series, the show about an emerging celebrity making his way in a gritty LA scene (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott started watching it during the pandemic, became “hooked”, and chose to add a fresh perspective on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she notes. The inspiration for this project originated—partly—from firsthand, initially fractious, move to LA and from the saturn return, a popular phenomenon for astrology heads. It was a phase that included her grasp significant insights, work-wise and individually. “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 was almost like these biblical tests …”
Starting Out
Raised in the East Coast, the star started developing and showcasing humor while enrolled in performance at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. 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, appearing at live shows with Edebiri and sharing hilarious (and distinctly) bizarre online content on the internet. One, Baby Cult, followed several females intensely drawn to having babies; another envisioned working at the brand Hollister as similar to being trapped in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she met Seligman through the university’s film scene and eventually appearing in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a funeral gathering with hints of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her journey, she explains, has been peers offering opportunities, as opposed to established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, continuing with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Rising Success
Those who questioned about Sennott earlier will likely be regretting it currently. As part of she describes as a “wild, full-circle” story, she seems to have created the perfect project. In 2019 she posted content called “it’s LA” online, in which she parodied movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a show about LA residents juggling advantages of internet fame (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being suspected of being a drug-addled thief, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). Some could easy to create a program about online fame that was overly idealized—or, more problematic, one that punched down at its subjects. The series does neither, creating a portrait of advantaged millennial existence that’s candid about the chaos and the shine.
Empathetic Approach
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” she observes. “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
