The star joins the online meeting and right away begins an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, seeming really apologetic. Despite being only a couple of minutes delayed, she feels compelled to explain. “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, in this context, that’s exactly what one hopes to hear. Additionally, it’s quite unsurprising. Those who know the boldly openly gay and outspoken project Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and appeared in alongside collaborator the talented actress—will be aware that she possesses plenty to say, be it about gender, sex, or the merits of starting a youth brawl society. Furthermore, after watching the latest seasonal show I Love LA, it is clear that she carries even more insights regarding the struggles of young adulthood (At 30, she represents a relatable figure for this generation, straddling eras skilled for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
Parallels to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and the actress readily acknowledges a fan, citing the show in addition to Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as inspirations for the project, which tracks the journey of a social media star Tallulah and close companion and aspiring talent manager portrayed by Sennott. However, the most significant spot on concept belonged to the popular sitcom, that program focusing on an up-and-coming Hollywood star succeeding in an often-seedy Hollywood (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She discovered it amid lockdown, became “obsessed”, and decided 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 explains. The inspiration for this project emerged—partly—from firsthand, initially fractious, relocation to LA and from the cosmic event, a popular phenomenon for followers. It was a time that saw her learn some big life lessons, in her career and individually. “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.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott started creating and acting stand-up while enrolled in performance 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. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, performing at live shows with Edebiri and posting hilarious (and distinctly) bizarre online content digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted several females fetishistically obsessed with having babies; a different one envisioned being employed at a trendy retail outlet as like being trapped in a thriller. Interestingly, she connected with Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ended up featuring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a Jewish wake with echoes of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her career, she says, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, as opposed to established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, stating humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Individuals who had doubts regarding her previously will likely be feeling foolish today. As part of she labels a “incredibly circular” development, she has manifested her dream vehicle. Previously she shared content called about Los Angeles on social media, in which she lampooned film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a series about city dwellers juggling advantages of digital stardom (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your client being labeled as being a drug-addled criminal, and perhaps becoming a risky persona non grata). Some could tempting to make a program about online fame that was horribly aspirational—or, worse, one that mocked at its subjects. The series steers clear of each, resulting in a representation of affluent millennial existence that’s honest about the grot and the appeal.
Balanced Perspective
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
