The performer joins the video call and immediately launches into an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, seeming genuinely apologetic. Despite being only slightly behind, she feels compelled to explain. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, during an interview, that’s precisely what one hopes to experience. Moreover, it’s pretty expected. Anyone who have seen her fearlessly LGBTQ+ and brash project titled Bottoms—that she penned with Emma Seligman and appeared in together with close companion Ayo Edebiri—will be aware that she holds much to share, ranging from about identity, intimacy, or the merits of creating a teen brawl society. Furthermore, by the end the recent multi-episode program titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she carries further insights about the darker side of modern youth (Now in her thirties, Sennott represents an honorary member of the gang, on the cusp with a knack for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Artistic Direction
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and the actress admits to being a fan, referencing it alongside the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as influences for the project, which details the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and new representative portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the biggest presence on creative vision was reserved for the popular sitcom, the HBO sitcom depicting a rising A-list actor making his way in a gritty entertainment industry (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She discovered it throughout COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and decided 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 notes. The idea for this project emerged—to some extent—from firsthand, originally difficult, transition to Tinseltown and from her saturn return, a popular occurrence for astrology heads. This represented an era that involved her grasp some big life lessons, work-wise and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Humble Origins
Raised in New England, Sennott started creating and acting stand-up while enrolled in acting at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she explains. “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 took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at open mics with Ayo and uploading uproarious (and decidedly) weird skits digitally. One, Baby Cult, depicted characters fetishistically fixated on having babies; another envisioned being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being caught in a horror film. Interestingly, she connected with Emma through campus film circles and ended up featuring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a Jewish wake with hints of the intense thriller. The central motif of her journey, she explains, has been peers offering opportunities, rather than established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she confirms, stating amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who questioned regarding Sennott earlier will surely be feeling foolish currently. In what she labels a “astonishingly complete” story, she seems to have created the perfect project. In 2019 she posted a video called on LA life on the internet, in which she mocked film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a series about city dwellers balancing advantages of digital stardom (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being labeled as being a drug-addled thief, and perhaps becoming a risky pariah). Some could easy to create a series about digital influence that was extremely idealized—or, worse, one that belittled at its subjects. This show does neither, resulting in a depiction of advantaged young adult existence that’s candid about the chaos and the shine.
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 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
