The star joins the video call and right away launches into an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, seeming truly apologetic. She is only slightly behind, she feels compelled to clarify. “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!” Luckily, during an interview, that’s exactly what one hopes to hear. Additionally, it’s quite expected. Anyone who know her boldly queer and outspoken project Bottoms—that she collaborated on with the director and appeared in together with collaborator the talented actress—will understand that Sennott holds a lot to share, ranging from on gender, intimacy, or the merits of starting a teen fight club. Plus, once you finish the new multi-episode HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that the star has additional thoughts regarding the struggles of Gen Z life (As a millennial, Sennott represents a relatable figure of the gang, straddling eras with a knack for connecting different age groups).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and the actress readily acknowledges enthusiastic, citing the show alongside Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as inspirations for the project, which details the struggles of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion and fledgling representative Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the biggest presence on the moodboard went to the HBO series, the HBO sitcom about a rising Hollywood star navigating in an often-seedy entertainment industry (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it during COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and chose to put her own twist 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 says. The concept for this project emerged—in part—from her own, at first difficult, move to LA and from her saturn return, a popular phenomenon for followers. That period marked an era that involved her understand significant life lessons, work-wise and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Early Beginnings
Raised in the East Coast, Sennott commenced creating and acting stand-up while studying acting at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. 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 took matters into her own hands, performing at open mics with Ayo and posting hilarious (and very) unconventional comedy videos online. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on several females fetishistically obsessed with motherhood; a different one portrayed being employed at the brand Hollister as similar to being trapped in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ended up featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a Jewish wake with shades of the intense thriller. The big theme of her journey, she notes, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, instead of the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, continuing amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who questioned regarding her previously will surely be regretting it currently. Through she describes as a “incredibly circular” story, she seems to have created an ideal role. Previously she posted content called “it’s LA” online, in which she mocked movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a comedy about Angelenos balancing advantages of digital stardom (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being accused of being a intoxicated thief, and possibly becoming a unreliable pariah). It would be easy to make a program about internet celebrity that was horribly aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at the characters. The series avoids both, resulting in a representation of advantaged young adult life that’s frank about the grot and the glamour.
Empathetic Approach
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
