True Whitaker Manifested Her Role in Rachel Sennott's New HBO Show

"It's actually pretty spooky," True Whitaker tells me, laughing. She's talking about a vision board she made years ago. "I cut out a Deadline logo because I was like, Guys, I'm manifesting booking a damn job. I need it—period. Then I placed a picture of Rachel right underneath."

Some time later, she was helping a friend film a self-tape for a new show, reading opposite them off-camera. Realizing how perfectly she fit the part she was reading for, Whitaker called her agent, asked to audition, and ended up booking the role—which turned out to be I Love LA, Sennott's new HBO series out in November. "My best friend called me because I'd left the board at her house, and she was like, 'What the fuck?' I was like, 'That's actually crazy.' I'm about to pull out another board again because clearly it worked."

The comedy follows a group of friends in their mid-20s figuring out their lives in Los Angeles, with Sennott starring alongside Odessa A'zion, Jordan Firstman, Josh Hutcherson, and Whitaker. It's kind of like Girls meets Entourage, but with TikTok and Heaven campaigns. "It's about such a confusing time that can feel kind of insecure," the actress tells me. "You're getting out of college. You're being told you should be on the path to a career. We're all trying to figure out what we're going to be doing for the next 20 years and where we're going to be in this life. You can feel the pressure on each character. Although my character, Alani, maybe doesn't have as much financial or work pressure, her pressure is to keep this group together. She's the glue. She tries to make sure everyone's okay, and she's really holding this chosen family together."

Alani is the daughter of a famous Hollywood director. On paper, she could seem like a cliché, but Whitaker wanted more for her. "I'm a Cancer, so I love the idea of humanizing people—I really felt I could humanize her. When I first read for her, I thought we had a lot of similarities. I come from L.A., my dad has directed, and I was like, okay, I've been that before. That character could easily not be very tasteful, and people could be icked out by the life she has, and I wanted to show she's not just an out-of-touch girl." Her reference point was Cher Horowitz in Clueless. "That one scene where Cher is getting robbed, and she's like, 'You don't understand. It's an Alaïa.' Even saying something so ridiculous, you're still rooting for her. I was really interested in that character, so I pulled a lot from her."

The 27-year-old had always wanted to act, but the thought of following in her father's footsteps was daunting at first. "Watching my dad was really inspirational," Whitaker says of her father, Forest Whitaker. "I think I was intimidated for a long time. The level of talent, the dedication. In middle school and high school, I'd mention wanting to act, but I wasn't showing anything in my craft to prove it or to show him that, as his youngest daughter, I should be allowed to pursue a field that's pretty scary. … I realized this is what I want to do for the rest of my life, and I needed to figure out how I want to do it—what technique or practice would allow me to hone this skill." She took Stanislavski and Strasberg classes while attending NYU's Gallatin School of Individualized Study, where she designed her own creative writing major. "I was trying to understand the history of acting and figure out how I wanted to use my instrument. It took me a minute to work up the courage to go for it. Eventually I thought, You miss all the shots you don't take. It just took me a long time to work up the courage to go for something that's always been my dream because that can be really scary."

I'm curious what the best advice her dad has ever given her is. Without pausing, she says, "When I was a teenager, and I was having trouble fitting in or there was a period when I was super shy going through puberty, I remember my dad saying, 'You might as well just be yourself because if you hide it, eventually it's gonna come out. And if people don't like who you are, then they're just gonna end up finding out anyway. So you might as well just be you from the jump because then you'll know who's gonna be there.' And that really stuck with me because if I hold in parts of my personality, what's the point? If they don't like it now or later, I'd rather go now. We have one life that we're conscious of right now, so just go for it."

I can tell from her warmth and openness how that perspective has stuck with her. "I talk a lot. I feel like I'm a certified yapper, so it provides a lot of opportunity for people to open up. If I go into a room and I feel like someone's a little quiet or nervous—maybe this is annoying—but I take it as a challenge to get them to open up. I feel a lot of energy, and I am extremely sensitive. I have a lot of empathy for everybody. I'm like, 'What's going on in there?' And usually it's a blast. I love to get someone who's kind of quiet to laugh hysterically."