True Whitaker Says She Improvised Alani’s Elvish Lines and Binged ‘The Lord of the Rings’ Movies To Prepare For Her ‘I Love LA’ Scenes With Elijah Wood: “I Felt Close To Alani”

How do you say “going method” in Elvish?

In Episode 4 of Rachel Sennott’s HBO comedy, I Love LA, the show about a West Coast friendgroup heads to a Hollywood party hosted by an influencer and finds themselves on the doorstep of a famous Hollywood actor. Upon arrival, Alani — True Whitaker’s nepo baby character whose father is a notable name in the biz — begins to lose her cool after finding out that the home belongs to Elijah Wood, who just so happens to be her celebrity crush. Relatable.

“I remember when I first read Episode 4, I was like, ‘Okay, so we’ve decided that Alani is like super into Lord of the Rings and like, in love with Frodo Baggins,’” she told DECIDER in a recent interview.

In the series, despite her character having been raised in the industry — something the actress can relate to as the daughter of Hollywood icon Forest Whitaker — Alani cannot seem to maintain her composure when realizing she could come face to face with the star of one of the biggest film franchises in history. Whitaker says she took the storyline so seriously that it ended up bleeding into her own life.

“As an actor, I don’t like to ever judge my character. So I was like, ‘Okay, so let’s understand her.’ So I locked in, spent my weekend watching all of Lord of the Rings, linear, learned a little bit of Elvish,” she said, adding that some of her adds to the episode made the final cut, “It was like an improv of mine, which I feel proud of […] I felt close to Alani.”

Things progress as Maia (Sennott) and Alani sneak into the part of the house that is roped off and discover Wood silently watching cartoons by himself in a trance-like state. Hilariously, Maia and Alani decide to try and seduce him into a threesome, only for it to go awry as he rejects their advances and gives them vibes more in line with serial killer that lady killer. 

Whitaker told DECIDER that while it may not have been something she could initially relate to, she snapped into gear to understand Alani in preparation of her scenes with Wood. An unintended benefit of becoming a last minute Lord of the Rings fan? Genuine excitement and anxiety around working with the Deep Impact actor.

“Working with him was was awesome, and watching him that whole weekend before [in Lord of the Rings] in preparation, brought the butterflies that I needed to connect to Alani,” she said.

Wood is not the only major name to make an appearance in the show’s first few episodes, however, as Episode 2 features Sennott’s close friend and frequent collaborator Ayo Edebiri. In the series, The Bear Emmy winner plays Mimi Rush, an eccentric British pop star who fires Charlie (Jordan Firstman) after learning he had been fishing for information on Zendaya, who she wanted to star in a music video. 

On the appearance by Edebiri, Sennott and Firstman both said that it was an honor and a pleasure to get to bring her to the set of the comedy — which has already been renewed for Season 2 — and that she tapped right back into her funny side after taking some time to tackle more serious projects.

“I called Ayo because basically, we were like, ‘If we want to hang out, we have to work together.’ So I was like, ‘Do you wanna come to two days on the show?’” Sennott told DECIDER. “And then she brought all these different ideas. She was like, ‘I want to do a mullet. I want a bedazzled vape, I want a British accent. I was like, ‘Yes to everything.’”

Firstman, who got to share the majority of the scenes with Edebiri, added, “I’ve known Ayo for a decade, we wrote on Big Mouth together and obviously, it’s been amazing to see her rise to stardom. But it’s also fun to see her like really get back to her comedy roots and like plays something really outlandish and over-the-top.”

The first four episodes of I Love LA are now streaming on HBO Max. New episodes air on HBO and HBO Max 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.