The actress and writer exploring the side-splitting show portraying the chaotic appeal of today's youth existence
The star appears on the digital interview and at once begins an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, seeming truly apologetic. She is only slightly delayed, she feels compelled to justify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Fortunately, during an interview, that’s just what one hopes to hear. Additionally, it’s pretty predictable. Anyone who know her unapologetically openly gay and unapologetically crass project Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with her creative partner and appeared in alongside collaborator The Bear’s standout—can already know that she possesses plenty to discuss, whether on roles, sex, or the merits of forming a youth fight club. Plus, once you finish her new eight-part program titled I Love LA, viewers realize that the star carries additional thoughts on the struggles of Gen Z life (As a millennial, she serves as an honorary member of the gang, straddling eras skilled for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and the actress readily acknowledges an admirer, naming the show together with the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for I Love LA, which details the struggles of a social media star Tallulah and ally and aspiring talent manager Maia. Perhaps, the biggest presence on the moodboard went to the popular sitcom, the program about an emerging Hollywood star navigating in a corrupt Hollywood (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it during lockdown, became “obsessed”, and resolved to create a new version 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 says. The concept for I Love LA emerged—to some extent—from personal, initially rocky, relocation to Tinseltown and from the cosmic event, a much-talked-about event for enthusiasts. That period marked a time that included her understand major truths, professionally and individually. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Starting Out
Growing up in Connecticut, the star began creating and acting humor while enrolled in performance at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. 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 Edebiri and sharing hysterical (and very) weird skits online. One, Baby Cult, followed several females fetishistically fixated on pregnancy; another imagined working at a trendy retail outlet as like being caught in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Seligman through campus film circles and eventually featuring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a funeral gathering with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her path, she explains, has been people her own age supporting her, instead of established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she confirms, continuing amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Anyone who were skeptical about her earlier will surely be kicking themselves currently. In what she labels a “incredibly circular” development, she appears to created an ideal role. Previously she uploaded content titled about Los Angeles online, in which she lampooned movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a series about LA residents managing the perks of online celebrity (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being accused of being a substance-abusing thief, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). One might easy to create a series about internet celebrity that was overly aspirational—or, worse, one that belittled at its subjects. I Love LA does neither, making for a representation of advantaged twentysomething living that’s honest about the grot and the glamour.
Empathetic Approach
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” 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