written by DOUGLAS GREENWOOD
photography JAKE SAMMIS
styling RICHIE LEE DAVIS
Jordan Firstman is running late to our interview because he’s been in the valet queue for an hour after The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Power brunch, waiting just behind an equally impatient Regina King. Josh Hutcherson is held up too, doing promo for his new movie Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 on Twitch. They’re both in the midst of a moment, with one common denominator: I Love LA, the HBO TV brainchild of their friend Rachel Sennott, in which they both star.
Set in star-fucky, social-climber-complicit contemporary Los Angeles, Sennott’s series follows a mid-20s influencer executive named Maia (played by Sennott) trying to break out and make it in a city that’s simultaneously trying to break her. Firstman—alongside Odessa O’Zion as a frantic influencer and True Whitaker as her nepo bestie—plays one of Maia’s henchpeople, a dry, no-bullshit stylist named Charlie. Hutcherson, who sits on the fringes of the preposterous world they live in, plays Maia’s boyfriend, Dylan.
For the past few weeks, the group has been showing up to events, kissing each other, and causing chaos. It feels like the making of a new It Crowd, composed of relative newcomers, internet staples, and nostalgic figures getting their contemporary reframing. (Alongside teen-star grad Hutcherson, Gossip Girl’s Leighton Meester has a supporting role.)
15 minutes later than planned, they both join a video call from Hutcherson’s new place in Los Angeles, coddled by Hutcherson’s two big dogs. Of the group, the unlikely gay-guy/straight-guy pairing of Hutcherson and Firstman seems to have grabbed the most attention. A post on X with 8.7 million views says the pair have “literally been dating for months,” but what we’re really witnessing is the birth of a beautiful bromance. Like Ben Affleck and Matt Damon with better internet literacy. Or Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman but not fucking annoying.
Here, they talk about their friendship, the show, and why Hutcherson said no to dropping the “F” slur—despite getting Firstman’s approval.
Douglas Greenwood: I finally finished the show last week. It’s been great since the beginning, but those final few are so great.
Jordan Firstman: I feel like the last three really get there.
Josh Hutcherson: It goes on a journey. Where they all end up makes you excited to see where it goes in season three—I mean, two!
Jordan: It’s official—we actually got a double renewal!
Did you guys know where your characters were going after this season before you got renewed?
Jordan: It happened so fast. Rachel got on a private jet to New York for the announcement. They gave her caviar and told her she had a season two. Baller!
Josh: A fan posted a potential idea, and then it was that, like, season one ends with… [proceeds to reveal the ending to season one].
Jordan: Originally, our characters were supposed to fuck. But when Josh came in I was like, “There’s no way that guy’s gay.” He said in one interview he doesn’t believe in labels, and suddenly the internet decided he’s bi. This bitch is straight.
Oh yeah, they will take that and run with it.
Jordan: When my song “Say it (F*ggot)” came out, Josh had already agreed to do TikToks with me. I was like, “Josh, we need you to say ‘F*ggot!”
Josh: I was like, “I love you so much, but I can’t”
What did you know about each other before meeting?
Josh: Nothing, really. But my friends were like, “Jordan? I fucking love that guy.”
Jordan: Somehow he missed Rotting in the Sun. I’d watched The Hunger Games, but I don’t like watching kids kill each other. I’d heard he went to my gym, and then I saw him across the room and was like, “Oh, he’s tiny”. But I’m a The Kids Are All Right stan.
“I’m the same person I was when I was nine.”
josh hutcherson
What do you bond over?
Jordan: Vibes. Like, we just love each other.
Josh: My closest friendships fill a need. Jordan pulls me out of my comfortable, don’t-bother-anyone lane. He’s like, “Go bother some people.” He pushes me in the best way.
Jordan: Josh makes me a better man. At a certain point you don’t think you’re gonna make new close friends, and then you do. People online are like, “Do they even interact on the show or are they just doing this for the plot?” Charlie never gets boy moments, so this feels very pure.
Jordan, did you want to be a child star like Josh?
Jordan: No, I wanted to be an adult star as a child. I watched Annie Hall and wanted to be Woody Allen’s character. I never related to precocious kids.
Josh: Same. When I watched Indiana Jones, I saw myself as Indiana.
Jordan: That’s why theater was appealing, because I got to play adults. You’re playing Bobby in Company at 14. What do you know about being alive?
Josh, I feel like you were sophisticated as a kid actor.
Josh: I’m the same person I was when I was nine.
Jordan: I just watched Little Manhattan. You’re so good in it! Watching it I did think that you still act the same.
Jordan, you just wrapped Club Kid, your directorial debut. What can you say about it?
Jordan: We shot it in New York on film, using real club scene kids. It’s heartfelt—more earnest than people expect from me, but still with bite.
Josh: I read the script. You killed it.
What’s the last bit of information you heard that made you want to get a lobotomy?
Jordan: When Diane Keaton died.
Josh: Probably the news about the US firing on ships off Venezuela.
“More embarrassing than being a republican? Being a gay republican.”
jordan firstman
What’s more embarrassing than being a republican?
Jordan: Being a gay republican.
Worst advice you’ve given each other?
Josh: Honestly? None. Jordan told me to get a new stylist, which was great advice.
Jordan: I was like, “You’re about to have an It Boy moment again. You can’t be in basic-ass suits.”
Josh: He’s never steered me wrong.
Jordan: Neither. Except maybe, “Let’s stay till the end of the baseball game.”
If you made a buddy comedy together, what would be the vibe?
Jordan: I want a Ready Player One–type beat. I love cyberpunk. I cast Cara Delevingne in my movie because of Valerian.
Josh: I want a retrofuturistic noir detective thing.
Jordan: Also, it’d be fun for you to be the gay one and me the straight one. Let’s flip it.
I Love LA airs on HBO Sunday nights until 21 December.
in the lead image JORDAN WEARS JACKET SECOND LAYER, TOP JORDAN’S OWN. JOSH WEARS JACKET AND TOP COACH.
josh hutcherson groomer ZAHEER SUKHNANDAN USING MAC COSMETICS
jordan firstman groomer PATRICIA MORALES USING HOUSE OF SKUFF & SHARK BEAUTY AT THE VISIONARIES AGENCY
nails JOLENE BRODEUR USING VOESH & PAUME AT THE WALLA GROUP
photography assistant JAI WILSON
location AMATO STUDIO
production THE MORRISON GROUP
production manager CECILIA ALVAREZ BLACKWELL