The star enters the online meeting and immediately begins an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, sounding really regretful. She is only slightly behind, she feels compelled to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, in this context, that’s just what is ideal to experience. Moreover, it’s quite predictable. Viewers familiar with her boldly openly gay and outspoken film titled Bottoms—which Sennott penned with the director and starred in with her friend the talented actress—would understand that she has a lot to share, be it on gender, sex, or the appeal of starting a high-school brawl society. Plus, once you finish her recent eight-part show I Love LA, viewers realize that she has even more thoughts on the struggles of young adulthood (At 30, she is a relatable figure to younger audiences, on the cusp adept for straddling different age groups).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and the actress admits to being enthusiastic, citing it in addition to the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as influences for the project, which tracks the struggles of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion and new representative portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the largest spot on creative vision was reserved for the popular sitcom, that program focusing on an emerging celebrity succeeding in an often-seedy LA scene (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She discovered it during COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and decided to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The idea for I Love LA came—to some extent—from her own, originally fractious, relocation to Tinseltown and from the saturn return, a frequently discussed event for followers. That period marked an era that saw her learn significant life lessons, in her career and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Humble Origins
Raised in the East Coast, Sennott began creating and acting comedy while pursuing performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She seized control, appearing at open mics with Edebiri and sharing hilarious (and distinctly) weird comedy videos digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on a group of women obsessively drawn to motherhood; another portrayed being employed at the brand Hollister as like being trapped in a horror film. By chance, she met Emma through campus film circles and ultimately appearing in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a Jewish wake with shades of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her path, she says, has been people her own age offering opportunities, instead of traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, continuing with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Those who had doubts regarding Sennott previously will surely be regretting it today. As part of she labels a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she has created an ideal role. In 2019 she posted content called about Los Angeles on social media, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a series about city dwellers managing benefits of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being accused of being a intoxicated criminal, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). It would be easy to create a program about online fame that was extremely idealized—or, more problematic, one that belittled at the characters. I Love LA avoids both, creating a representation of advantaged millennial living that’s candid about the grot and the glamour.
Nuanced Portrayal
“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