The performer enters the online meeting and right away starts an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, seeming truly regretful. She is only a couple of minutes behind, she needs to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, for a writer, this is precisely what one hopes to encounter. Additionally, it’s pretty unsurprising. Those familiar with her unapologetically openly gay and brash project Bottoms—that she co-wrote with the director and appeared in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—will be aware that she has a lot to discuss, whether about roles, relationships, or the appeal of starting a high-school brawl society. Furthermore, once you finish her recent seasonal program I Love LA, viewers realize that she holds further thoughts on the struggles of Gen Z life (As a millennial, she represents an honorary member for this generation, on the cusp adept for connecting both generations).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott readily acknowledges an admirer, referencing it together with the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for the project, which tracks the travails of a social media star Tallulah and ally and fledgling agent portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the largest presence on concept went to the popular sitcom, that HBO sitcom depicting an emerging celebrity succeeding in a corrupt Hollywood (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott discovered it amid lockdown, became “obsessed”, and decided to add a fresh perspective 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 notes. The inspiration for the series emerged—to some extent—from firsthand, originally difficult, move to LA and from the cosmic event, a popular occurrence for astrology heads. This represented a time that involved her grasp significant truths, in her career and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she admits. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Humble Origins
Brought up in New England, the star began developing and showcasing comedy while studying acting at a prestigious arts school. “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. 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, taking the stage at live shows with Ayo and posting uproarious (and distinctly) unconventional skits digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on several females intensely obsessed with motherhood; another envisioned working at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being trapped in a horror film. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up featuring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her career, she notes, has been peers supporting her, as opposed to the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she repeats, adding with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who had doubts regarding Sennott previously will certainly be regretting it today. In what she calls a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she has manifested her dream vehicle. In 2019 she posted a video titled on LA life online, in which she mocked film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a comedy about city dwellers juggling the perks of digital stardom (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being accused of being a drug-addled criminal, and perhaps becoming a unreliable outcast). It would be simple to produce a show about online fame that was extremely aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at those depicted. This show avoids both, making for a portrait of advantaged young adult existence that’s frank about the chaos and the appeal.
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 observes. “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
