In I Love LA, the arrival of Tallulah (Odessa A’zion) in Los Angeles means that Maia (Rachel Sennott) now has a top-tier client to represent in a relationship that’s only partially professional. Alani (True Whitaker) and Charlie (Jordan Firstman) are along for the ride as they navigate occasional missteps and misunderstandings that land them in considerable hot water.
Awards Buzz spoke with Firstman about embracing Charlie and how much he and his fellow stars are embedded in their characters:
“I think Rachel has written characters that are very, very heightened versions of ourselves. I think we’re all alike and not. For example, True was the biggest wild card, because Rachel didn’t know her at all going in. So, in the original pilot we did, Alani is not Alani. Different character, but when she started, True has her own comedic timing that was bestowed upon her by God. No one else can say a line like her. Sometimes the choices she would make, I would be in awe. I’d be like, I can’t. You just channeled that from somewhere else. It was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen, but somehow it worked. She’s a nepo baby. She does think very positively, usually, about things. She can be a bit ditzy but also really gets it too and can throw it down. I think we’re all the either better version of our character in real life, hopefully, or the smarter versions. I think Charlie can be viewed as this catty, brash, brazen gay guy, but I think Rachel wrote a way softer character than people realize they’re watching, but we needed to get from point A to B. He’s tested a lot in this season and I think humiliation is his karma in this season. I think it gets him to a place. I think if you watch him episode one to episode eight, there’s actually a big change. For more of a sitcom format, I would have tried to have kept the same level of comedy in every episode. But, by the end, Charlie felt more grounded. I didn’t want to say things the way I would say them in the first couple episodes. I think Rachel wrote a cool character in that respect.”
Watch the video above to hear about the difficulty of having accurate gaydar, hopes for Charlie’s future, and what might have been in a third season of English Teacher.
The first season of I Love LA is now streaming on HBO Max.
Photograph by Kenny Laubbacher HBO
