The performer enters the digital interview and right away launches into an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, sounding really regretful. Despite being only a bit late, she wants to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, for a writer, this is precisely what one hopes to encounter. Moreover, it’s pretty predictable. Anyone familiar with her fearlessly LGBTQ+ and outspoken project Bottoms—which Sennott collaborated on with the director and featured in together with her friend Ayo Edebiri—would already know that she has much to say, whether on gender, intimacy, or the pros of forming a youth combat group. And, after watching her recent seasonal HBO series titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she holds additional perspectives on the challenges of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, Sennott serves as a relatable figure of the gang, on the cusp adept for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Artistic Direction
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress readily acknowledges an admirer, referencing it together with the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as guides for her series, which tracks the journey of online personality Tallulah and close companion who is also new agent Sennott’s character. However, the largest presence on the moodboard belonged to Entourage, the program depicting an emerging celebrity making his way in a gritty entertainment industry (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott began viewing it amid lockdown, became “captivated”, and resolved to add a fresh perspective on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she notes. The concept for the series emerged—partly—from personal, at first difficult, relocation to LA and from her saturn return, a frequently discussed occurrence for followers. This represented a phase that involved her understand significant life lessons, in her career and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Humble Origins
Brought up in the East Coast, Sennott began creating and acting stand-up while enrolled in performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “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, appearing at live shows with Ayo and uploading hysterical (and decidedly) bizarre skits on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted several females obsessively drawn to having babies; another imagined being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being caught in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Seligman through campus film circles and ended up starring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her path, she says, has been people her own age supporting her, as opposed to traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, adding humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Those who questioned about Sennott then will likely be kicking themselves currently. As part of she calls a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she appears to created an ideal role. Previously she uploaded a video called “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a series about Angelenos balancing advantages of internet fame (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your client being accused of being a substance-abusing thief, and potentially becoming a risky pariah). Some could easy to make a series about online fame that was horribly idealized—or, more problematic, one that mocked at those depicted. The series steers clear of each, resulting in a representation of privileged young adult existence that’s frank about the chaos and the glamour.
Nuanced Portrayal
“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
