The actress and writer discussing the side-splitting comedy about the chaotic glamour of Gen Z life
The star joins the digital interview and immediately starts an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, sounding genuinely apologetic. Although she's only slightly behind, she needs 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!” Thankfully, during an interview, this is just what you want to experience. Additionally, it’s quite unsurprising. Anyone who have seen her fearlessly LGBTQ+ and outspoken project titled Bottoms—that she penned with her creative partner and featured in together with collaborator the talented actress—can understand that she possesses much to discuss, ranging from about identity, sex, or the merits of creating a teen fight club. Plus, after watching her recent eight-part HBO series I Love LA, viewers realize that the star has further insights on the darker side of modern youth (As a millennial, Sennott is a bridge to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial adept for bridging both generations).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and the actress is enthusiastic, referencing the show alongside Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as guides for her series, which follows the struggles of an influencer Tallulah and her friend and fledgling agent portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the biggest presence on creative vision belonged to the popular sitcom, that HBO sitcom depicting an up-and-coming A-list actor navigating in an often-seedy LA scene (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She began viewing it throughout lockdown, became “hooked”, and resolved to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The inspiration for the series came—partly—from personal, at first fractious, transition to Tinseltown and from the cosmic event, a popular phenomenon for enthusiasts. That period marked a time that involved her understand some big truths, professionally and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott commenced creating and acting stand-up while studying acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “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.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, performing at amateur nights with Edebiri and uploading hilarious (and decidedly) unconventional skits on the internet. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, followed characters fetishistically fixated on motherhood; another portrayed working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being caught in a horror film. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through campus film circles and ended up starring 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 career, she explains, has been people her own age supporting her, rather than the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she confirms, stating with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who were skeptical about her previously will certainly be regretting it today. In what she calls a “incredibly circular” story, she seems to have achieved her dream vehicle. In 2019 she uploaded a video titled about Los Angeles online, in which she parodied film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a series about Angelenos juggling the perks of online celebrity (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being accused of being a intoxicated thief, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). Some could easy to make a show about digital influence that was horribly idealized—or, worse, one that belittled at its subjects. This show does neither, creating a depiction of affluent twentysomething existence that’s honest about the chaos and the appeal.
Balanced Perspective
“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