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Some TV viewers have a habit of conflating TV characters with the actors who play them. This was prominent, for example, during Girls<\/a><\/em>\u2018 run on HBO<\/a> and in the years after. Rachel Sennott<\/a> is the creator, star, executive producer, and director of the new HBO comedy\u00a0I Love LA<\/a><\/em>, which debuted on November 2, and her cast features actors who were already famous faces on the internet playing people who are internet famous. Before the show debuted, we asked Sennott for her thoughts on this parasocial phenomenon of people thinking actors are their characters and how she feels if that were to happen with the I Love LA <\/em>cast<\/a>. Her costars Odessa A\u2019zion<\/a>, Jordan Firstman<\/a>, and True Whitaker<\/a> weighed in as well.<\/p>\n Sennott\u2019s Twitter, along with her Bottoms<\/em> costar Ayo Edebiri<\/a>\u2018s (who made a cameo in\u00a0I Love LA<\/em> Episode 2<\/a>), were hugely popular before they both shut down their accounts. Sennott also went viral with the \u201cFatima\u201d memes<\/a> and her 2019 video about Los Angeles culture (which was filmed before she moved to L.A. and made a home there, spawning this series).<\/p>\n A\u2019zion, who plays Tallulah in the series, boasts 1.3 million followers on Instagram and is the daughter of Emmy winner Pamela Adlon<\/a>. Firstman (Charlie) got famous on socials, and Whitaker (Alani) is the daughter of Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker<\/a>. That\u2019s all to say that they\u2019re familiar with social media fame. And with the show depicting internet culture and people who build careers off of it, like some of I Love LA<\/em>\u2018s stars<\/a> have, the lines between their characters and themselves may get blurred.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that any responses to the characters, I feel like that part of reactions are a sign that people are engaging with something. I think that\u2019s always cool,\u201d Sennott says, adding that she \u201cput pieces of myself in all the characters\u201d but \u201cnothing is a clear one-to-one.\u201d<\/p>\n Sennott plays Maia, an up-and-coming talent manager who hopes to create a big life for herself through her friendship and partnership with her complicated best friend, influencer Tallulah (A\u2019zion). A\u2019zion stresses, \u201cI\u2019m not an influencer, and I don\u2019t really know how that stuff works. But from knowing my friends who do do that and are influencers, it\u2019s definitely a real job.\u201d<\/p>\n The\u00a0Marty Supreme<\/em> star says that jobs in social media aren\u2019t just for interns, despite what the internet teases.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s definitely time-consuming. And for the people that do it and do it [well], it\u2019s a lot of work,\u201d she says. \u201cYou\u2019re on all the time. You have to do it all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n Whitaker\u2019s Alani is a little different, as the character was rewritten to bake more of Whitaker\u2019s personality and nepo baby lived experiences.<\/p>\n