Note: This story contains spoilers from “I Love LA” Season 1, Episode 5.
When Leighton Meester was first considering joining Rachel Sennott’s “I Love LA” as Alyssa, the “unhinged” boss of Sennott’s Maia, Meester was drawn by both Sennott’s vision as the creator, star and co-showrunner, as well as the chance to embody a wackier role than usual.
“There was a breakdown that was just like, ‘Your character is a woman in her 40s who talks while chewing on the phone and coughs a lot,’ and I [was] like, ‘I like that —That’s my dream role, to be honest,’” Meester told TheWrap. “You get to be like, obviously, over the course of a handful of episodes, a little wacky.”
While Meester noted Sennott and co-showrunner Emma Barrie already had a strong vision for where Alyssa could go in the first season of the HBO half-hour comedy, Meester aimed to find elements that could help ground her character, a girlboss founder of management company Alyssa 180 who frequently crosses the line of what’s socially acceptable in the workplace.
“It was super fun to explore just how unhinged she can be, and a little bit barbaric in her like manner and in the way that she relates to people or doesn’t relate,” Meester said, adding that the challenge laid not in finding the “good” in Alyssa, per se, but in “grounding her to some extent where it would make sense that she could get to where she is and function as an adult,” joking she “can’t be too out of control.”
“It was just about like finding something that is formidable for Maia to want to reach that point in her career,” Meester said. “For better or worse, Alyssa has mentored her and held her hand and helped her to get to where she is, but also has probably hindered her growth and her self belief to some extent … whether or not that’s intentional — I don’t think that she’s aware at just how much power she has and also how little manners she has.”
While Alyssa is side-by-side with Maia as she attempts to work her way up the corporate chain, Episode 5 lifts the veil on Alyssa’s home life, which could be considered even more unhinged than her not-so-professional facade. Maia — and viewers — get their first look inside Alyssa’s home after she invites Maia and Dylan (Josh Hutcherson) over to dinner, which reveals a number of neurosis stemming from both Alyssa, as well as her longterm partner, Jeremy (Ben Feldman), whose so-called migraines are triggered by both Maia’s volume and her perfume.
“Her life outside is … not a reflection of what she’s like in her office,” Meester said. “She feels very centered and powerful [there] — she’s created this mini little empire, but, at home, I think she struggles.”
After Jeremy retires under the guise of a migraine, which Alyssa tells Maia sometimes put him in bed for days, Alyssa confides in Maia that her relationship hasn’t been exactly what she envisioned. Maia gets an even better, though unsolicited, look at what Alyssa means when she comes across Jeremy jerking off after retiring for his nap. It’s a wake-up call for Maia, especially after Alyssa told her she could do better than Dylan.
“In many ways, she would represent what Maia’s … current track would lead her to — if she really tried to emulate Alyssa’s work ethic, her drive and her dreams, you might end up with this facade of a nice house and a nice relationship and your own business, your own company, your own office, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re happy,” Meester said. “We haven’t quite worked it out, where people can have it all, where we can have it all.”
Meester applauded Feldman for his brief, but hilarious performance, saying “he’s down to kind of get weird … all of it kind of went off the rails as much and as often as possible.”
“He got a very brief time, but it was very impactful to give you a total glimpse into the kind of ego that Alyssa is living with, and what she might be competing with to some extent,” Meester said, adding that the “shorthand, loving gestures and bickering” felt natural between the duo.
“I Love LA” premieres Sundays at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and HBO Max.
