The performer enters the digital interview and at once begins an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, appearing really regretful. She is only slightly late, she wants to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, in this context, this is just what is ideal to encounter. Besides, it’s pretty unsurprising. Anyone familiar with the unapologetically queer and unapologetically crass project titled Bottoms—that she co-wrote with Emma Seligman and starred in alongside her friend Ayo Edebiri—can understand that she holds a lot to share, ranging from about identity, intimacy, or the pros of forming a teen fight club. Furthermore, after watching her latest seasonal show titled I Love LA, viewers realize that the star holds further perspectives about the struggles of Gen Z life (As a millennial, Sennott is a relatable figure for this generation, straddling eras adept for straddling both generations).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and the actress is an admirer, citing the show alongside Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for the project, which follows the journey of an influencer Tallulah and her friend who is also new talent manager Maia. Perhaps, the biggest spot on concept was reserved for Entourage, the program focusing on an emerging A-list actor succeeding in an often-seedy LA scene (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott discovered it amid lockdown, became “hooked”, and decided to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she says. The idea for this project originated—partly—from her own, originally rocky, relocation to Tinseltown and from her saturn return, a popular occurrence for astrology heads. That period marked a time that included her learn significant insights, work-wise and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Starting Out
Raised in New England, Sennott started writing and performing comedy while studying acting at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “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?”
She seized control, performing at amateur nights with Ayo and uploading uproarious (and distinctly) bizarre online content online. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on characters intensely drawn to motherhood; a different one imagined working at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being stuck in a scary movie. By chance, she connected with Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually starring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her career, she explains, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, instead of established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, continuing with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Rising Success
Anyone who questioned regarding her previously will surely be feeling foolish now. As part of she labels a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she seems to have achieved her dream vehicle. Previously she posted content titled about Los Angeles on social media, in which she parodied movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a show about Angelenos juggling benefits of internet fame (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being suspected of being a drug-addled stealer, and potentially becoming a unreliable pariah). It would be easy to produce a program about online fame that was extremely idealized—or, more problematic, one that punched down at those depicted. This show steers clear of each, making for a depiction of advantaged young adult existence that’s frank about the mess 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 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
