The performer joins the video call and at once starts an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, appearing truly remorseful. Although she's only slightly behind, she needs to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, in this context, that’s precisely what one hopes to hear. Besides, it’s quite predictable. Those who know the boldly queer and outspoken film titled Bottoms—that she co-wrote with the director and starred in alongside collaborator Ayo Edebiri—would understand that she possesses much to say, whether on gender, sex, or the appeal of forming a high-school combat group. Furthermore, by the end the recent seasonal HBO series titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she has additional perspectives about the challenges of young adulthood (As a millennial, Sennott is a bridge to younger audiences, straddling eras with a knack for straddling both generations).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
Parallels to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott is an admirer, naming it together with Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as influences for the project, which tracks the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also fledgling representative Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the most significant spot on creative vision was reserved for the popular sitcom, the show depicting a rising celebrity succeeding in an often-seedy LA scene (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott started watching it throughout lockdown, became “hooked”, and decided to create a new version on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she says. The concept for this project originated—partly—from firsthand, at first rocky, transition to Tinseltown and from her cosmic event, a much-talked-about phenomenon for astrology heads. It was a phase that involved her grasp some big insights, in her career and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Humble Origins
Brought up in the East Coast, Sennott began developing and showcasing humor while enrolled in theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “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. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott seized control, appearing at amateur nights with Ayo and sharing uproarious (and very) unconventional online content online. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed characters obsessively drawn to motherhood; a different one envisioned being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being trapped in a scary movie. By chance, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and ultimately appearing in her first film, Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of the intense thriller. The big theme of her journey, she notes, has been peers supporting her, instead of the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she confirms, adding with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who questioned regarding her then will likely be feeling foolish currently. In what she describes as a “incredibly circular” development, she has created her dream vehicle. In 2019 she shared content titled about Los Angeles on social media, in which she mocked movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a show about LA residents juggling the perks of digital stardom (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being accused of being a substance-abusing criminal, and perhaps becoming a unreliable persona non grata). One might tempting to create a show about digital influence that was overly idealized—or, worse, one that belittled at its subjects. The series steers clear of each, creating a portrait of advantaged millennial 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 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
