Rachel Sennott and I Love L.A. cast on finding the joke in Hollywood ambition

If there’s a line that best sums up I Love L.A., Rachel Sennott’s sharply-drawn new comedy series about making it big in the cutthroat city, it’s when influencer Tallulah (Odessa A’zion) breaks her phone and asks, desperately, “What am I supposed to look at?”

The phone is not a crutch but an extension of the body to the characters in the show created and written by Sennott. Tallulah is managed by Maia (Sennott), an old friend from New York who’s trying to show her talent agency boss (Leighton Meester) that she can guide Tallulah to social media royalty, one lucrative brand deal at a time. Joined by a supporting cast of industry nepo babies (including one played by real-life industry kin True Whitaker), they usher in TV’s latest self-deprecating portrayal of Los Angeles’s dreamland filled with influencers, $30k post agreements, and mansion parties.

For Sennott, whose biggest roles to date have been an unpopular high school virgin (Bottoms) and an ill-fated podcaster (Bodies Bodies Bodies), I Love L.A. is both a career-defining text and a bridge towards maturity. She came up as a caustic, fast-thinking comic in New York, but L.A. is where she’s set to become a TV and movie star — which you get the sense she is immediately watching the pilot. Early, speculative TikToks have compared Sennott’s series to Girls, but that doesn’t quite stand up. I Love L.A. isn’t a zillenial spin on Lena Dunham’s work. With its manic energy and commitment to depicting the hustle of modern fame, it’s more an Entourage for people who would freak out to be in the same room as Quenlin Blackwell. More so than that, Sennott cares about showing all that it takes to get there.

Ahead, we caught up with the show’s cast — Sennott, A’zion, Whitaker, Meester, Jordan Firstman, and Josh Hutcherson — about becoming influencers, industry ambition, and red-carpet serves.

The FADER: I Love L.A. is about the hustle of making it online. What was the most important thing to capture about these people and their mindsets? What do they care about beyond the money and fame?

Rachel Sennott: It’s different for every character. We talked a lot about everyone having a different response to the time that they live in. For young people, we all came of age in such a tumultuous time during COVID either through school or entering a bad workforce. Maia is someone who grips onto control and tries to hold onto things that make her feel O.K. Tallulah is a little bit more nihilistic; she’s sort of like ‘Who cares? Screw it. We can’t really control anything anyways. So I’m just gonna vibe.” Each character has a different response to ambition.

How would you describe the relationship between Maia and Tallulah?

Sennott: Sisterly. They do need each other and they help each other but they also help make bad decisions for each other by accident, too. Ultimately, though, they’re better when they’re together than when they’re apart. Neither of their careers would be advancing if they didn’t have each other.

Did you learn anything new about the influencer economy and the world in which these people inhabit?

Odessa A’zion: Definitely. One of my best friends does social media. I don’t know if she would call herself an influencer but she’s already taught me a lot because I’m always asking her how the fuck these things work. I learned a lot from Tallulah in general. I am the most awkward person on a red carpet in the world but Tallulah is always posing and doing photo shoots. Last year at a Variety Oscars party, we had already been filming and I fully credit Tallulah for helping me get more comfortable to do that because I would not be able to pose for a photo otherwise. I’m just like, “what am I doing?” I just need to like, fucking shake it off and ignore the judgment of everyone. Playing Tallulah taught me how to shake it off and serve.

Rachel, your character is a Hollywood assistant. I was curious, what does your assistant make of the show? Did they have any feedback?

Sennott: [To her assistant, sitting off-camera] Claire, what do you make of the show? She loves it. It’s great. We need some more assistant representation. Also, she is in the show. It’s true. She’s incredible. In the past I have PA’d on set and have worked the phones at a casting office so I have a little experience. Obviously, there is another COVID hangover which is people in their late 20s that haven’t been promoted to the jobs that they might have been a decade ago so there’s this backlog in the industry of people not leaving jobs or retiring. We wanted to make that a part of the character to show that Maia should have moved forward already and has proven herself, but isn’t being given an opportunity to move to the next stage.

A standout episode is one in which Elijah Wood guest stars. What are your memories of shooting that day?

True Whitaker: There were a lot of aspects to the three days of that shoot that were dangerous, but also exhilarating and fun. The house we filmed in was surrounded by bears, for a start. Working with Elijah was like a dream, though. I got super starstruck. It’s funny because [my character] Alani comes from a Hollywood family but she doesn’t watch movies. To her, Robert de Niro is just her dad’s friend that taught her to swim. I was like, “oh my god, it’s Elijah Wood,” though. It’s time to lock in. I watched every single Lord of the Rings movie to prepare. I learned a little Elvish. I threw it in during an improv take and when we cut he was, like, “Did you just yell at me in Elvish?” I used the same Elvish that Cate Blanchett speaks in. Because that’s the one that entranced him.

Jordan, as somebody who has excelled at the comedy side of online content and then moved into movies and TV, were you ever tempted to go down the influencer route?

Firstman: No, I’ve always been like a Hollywood bitch. I had already been writing and had agents at a big agency by the time the internet stuff happened. I remember two weeks into going viral I was like, “Let’s pitch a show.” I wasn’t trying to start a podcast. I know a lot of people still know me as the impressions guy and I appreciate that while also wanting to be known for my other work.

I think the show is touching on that whole phenomenon. Pivoting is such a huge part of the culture we live in right now. And you can’t stay doing the same thing over and over again. If you stop for a second, you’ll disappear. And I think it’s just the harsh reality of the world we live in right now. Everyone is just trying to keep up and you can’t stay the same, you have to keep reinventing yourself. I feel like humans are supposed to reinvent themselves two or three times in a lifetime and now we have to do it every year.

Josh, your character is perhaps the most grounded person in the show. Is finding grounded people key to survival in L.A.?

Josh Hutcherson: I think so. It’s important to have grounded people around you. That said, there’s also something creatively exciting about being around people who aren’t grounded. They don’t make movies about people who always do the right thing.

Leighton, Alyssa looks like such a fun character to play. How was it leaning into your comedic side, and did you draw from any personal experiences while creating this Hollywood manager type?

Leighton Meester: Do you want some names? [laughs] I mean, I’ve been around all kinds of personalities over the years. And [Josh] said, there’s something electric about people who are completely ungrounded. But those people, especially someone like Alyssa, can also be really intimidating. Even on their best day, they kind of make me shrink a little so it was fun to be that person for once. There are so many people in this business who are just not living on Earth.

What do you both remember about your own early experiences coming to L.A.?

Hutcherson: I came out here when I was nine, a really impressionable age, and everything just felt magical. Maybe it wasn’t, but that’s how it seemed to me. Coming from Kentucky, even staying in a motel, felt magical. My mom would drive me to four auditions a day before GPS existed. From that first moment, I felt like I’d already made it. As a nine-year-old, I thought, I’m a professional actor now, and this is my life.

Meester: When I first came to L.A., I was 14 and moved into a little apartment on Hollywood Boulevard with a bunch of family members. It was cramped, and reality set in pretty fast. It’s such an easy dream to sell. You say, “Don’t you want to go to Hollywood and be an actor?” and most people would say, “Yeah, I do.”

The fact that I actually get to do it still feels romantic to me. But like Josh said, we’re not in that motel or that tiny apartment anymore. There’s always that question in L.A.: When are you satisfied?

’I Love L.A.’ debuts Sunday, November 2 at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT on HBO. It will be available to stream on HBO Max.