Rachel Sennott Talks “Crashing Out” and the Inspiration for the Anxiety-Inducing Birthday Scene in the ‘I Love La’ Premiere: “It Definitely Comes From a Personal Place”

Have you ever made a perfect plan and then had it ruined by the Type B friend who can’t even make it to dinner on time? I Love LA star and creator Rachel Sennott can relate.

In the first episode of the comedian and actress’ brand-new HBO Max show, her character, Maia, is just trying to celebrate her birthday with a fancy dinner in Beverly Hills when her old friend, Talullah (Odessa A’Zion) flies in from New York and brings her tornado of chaos with her.

**Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers from the first episode of I Love LA, now streaming on HBO Max**

Maia, who wants to spend her birthday doing something low-key, is quickly thrown for a loop by Talullah, who asks her to attempt to change the dinner reservation at the last minute — both in time and in party size — leaving Sennott’s character to spend hours on the phone with the restaurant trying to work it out. When Maia and Dylan (Josh Hutcherson) ultimately arrive at the restaurant, they’re escorted to a private suite that Talullah was able to secure via her influencer ties. Oh, and the group informs her that dinner is no longer happening since they now have something much better.

If you can feel your eye twitching at the rudeness and inconvenience of it all (albeit good-natured as Talullah was trying to do something nice for Maia), you are not alone. Chatting with DECIDER about the series of unfortunate events in the pilot, Sennott said that the scenes are very much inspired by real-life events involving some incredibly laid-back friends.

“So often, I’m the person making the plan, whatever, figuring it out and then when everyone’s like, ‘Actually, I’m going to be 20 minutes late,’ or ‘Sorry, I don’t like that restaurant,’ or whatever, I’m like crashing out,” the Bottoms star and co-writer joked. “I’m like, ‘You guys, I made a perfect plan, I checked out everyone’s allergies, I found this… So it definitely comes from a personal place.”

At just 30, Sennott has been part of projects like Bodies Bodies Bodies, Saturday Night, Shiva Baby, and I Used to Be Funny, so who can blame her for wanting to be in charge of the plans? While she says it’s in her nature to be the leader and to take the reins, she did add that at the end of her “Saturn return” — a.k.a. a period when Saturn’s placement realigns with where it was when you were born — she is finally starting to take on a more easygoing approach to life.

“I think I’m just always the person that tries to make the plan and I plan everything,” the actress said. “I’m at the end of my Saturn return, and I think my lesson is like letting go and trusting my intuition and being a little more free.”

So, how has the rest of her Saturn return been? Well, A’Zion — who also spoke with DECIDER about her role in Sennott’s Southern California-based comedy — pointed to something that not many other people can say they accomplished within the astrological time of reevaluation. “Within her Saturn return, she created a whole show, so I think it went pretty good,” said the Until Dawn star with a laugh. “It turned out good.”

The first episode of I Love LA is now streaming on HBO Max. New episodes release Sundays at 10:30 p.m. ET.

If you’re new to HBO Max, you can sign up for as low as $10.99/month with ads, but an ad-free subscription will cost $18.49/month.

If you want to stream even more and save a few bucks a month while you’re at it, we recommend subscribing to one of the discounted Disney+ Bundles with Hulu and HBO Max. With ads, the bundle costs $19.99/month and without ads, $32.99/month.