Notice: This story comprises spoilers from “I Love LA” Season 1, Episode 5.
When Leighton Meester was first contemplating becoming a member of Rachel Sennott’s “I Love LA” as Alyssa, the “unhinged” boss of Sennott’s Maia, Meester was drawn by each Sennott’s imaginative and prescient because the creator, star and co-showrunner, in addition to the prospect to embody a wackier position than common.
“There was a breakdown that was similar to, ‘Your character is a girl in her 40s who talks whereas chewing on the cellphone and coughs lots,’ and I [was] like, ‘I like that —That’s my dream position, to be sincere,’” Meester instructed TheWrap. “You get to be like, clearly, over the course of a handful of episodes, a little bit wacky.”
Whereas Meester famous Sennott and co-showrunner Emma Barrie already had a powerful imaginative and prescient for the place Alyssa might go within the first season of the HBO half-hour comedy, Meester aimed to search out components that might assist floor her character, a girlboss founding father of administration firm Alyssa 180 who regularly crosses the road of what’s socially acceptable within the office.
“It was tremendous enjoyable to discover simply how unhinged she might be, and a little bit bit barbaric in her like method and in the way in which that she pertains to folks or doesn’t relate,” Meester mentioned, including that the problem laid not to find the “good” in Alyssa, per se, however in “grounding her to some extent the place it could make sense that she might get to the place she is and performance as an grownup,” joking she “can’t be too uncontrolled.”
“It was nearly like discovering one thing that’s formidable for Maia to need to attain that time in her profession,” Meester mentioned. “For higher or worse, Alyssa has mentored her and held her hand and helped her to get to the place she is, but additionally has most likely hindered her progress and her self perception to some extent … whether or not or not that’s intentional — I don’t assume that she’s conscious at simply how a lot energy she has and likewise how little manners she has.”
Whereas Alyssa is side-by-side with Maia as she makes an attempt to work her means up the company chain, Episode 5 lifts the veil on Alyssa’s house life, which might be thought-about much more unhinged than her not-so-professional facade. Maia — and viewers — get their first look inside Alyssa’s house after she invitations Maia and Dylan (Josh Hutcherson) over to dinner, which reveals numerous neurosis stemming from each Alyssa, in addition to her longterm associate, Jeremy (Ben Feldman), whose so-called migraines are triggered by each Maia’s quantity and her fragrance.
“Her life outdoors is … not a mirrored image of what she’s like in her workplace,” Meester mentioned. “She feels very centered and highly effective [there] — she’s created this mini little empire, however, at house, I feel she struggles.”
After Jeremy retires underneath the guise of a migraine, which Alyssa tells Maia generally put him in mattress for days, Alyssa confides in Maia that her relationship hasn’t been precisely what she envisioned. Maia will get a good higher, although unsolicited, take a look at what Alyssa means when she comes throughout Jeremy jerking off after retiring for his nap. It’s a wake-up name for Maia, particularly after Alyssa instructed her she might do higher than Dylan.
“In some ways, she would symbolize what Maia’s … present observe would lead her to — if she actually tried to emulate Alyssa’s work ethic, her drive and her desires, you would possibly find yourself with this facade of a pleasant home and a pleasant relationship and your individual enterprise, your individual firm, your individual workplace, nevertheless it doesn’t essentially imply that you just’re completely satisfied,” Meester mentioned. “We haven’t fairly labored it out, the place folks can have all of it, the place we will have all of it.”
Meester applauded Feldman for his temporary, however hilarious efficiency, saying “he’s all the way down to type of get bizarre … all of it type of went off the rails as a lot and as typically as doable.”
“He obtained a really temporary time, nevertheless it was very impactful to provide you a complete glimpse into the type of ego that Alyssa resides with, and what she is perhaps competing with to some extent,” Meester mentioned, including that the “shorthand, loving gestures and bickering” felt pure between the duo.
“I Love LA” premieres Sundays at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and HBO Max.
