Starring in Rachel Sennott’s hot and messy new series, I Love LA, Josh Hutcherson finds himself at the centre of Silverlake’s hyperbolic Gen Z ecosystem: ruled by IV drips, iced matchas, mercury retrograde and the perfect Instagram dump. Sennott plays a chronically online aspiring talent manager wrangling her clients’ TikTok dramas and livestreamed meltdowns; Hutcherson plays Dylan, her seemingly level-headed teacher boyfriend who’s just trying to keep up. It’s a curveball role, and a perfect one – deadpan, off-kilter, and oddly endearing. This winter also sees Hutcherson return to the neon-lit nightmare of Five Nights at Freddy’s, reprising his role as Mike, the long-suffering security guard at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria, a sharp contrast to the viral indie chaos of I Love LA – but with equally frantic energy.

Josh Hutcherson: Hey, Rach! Look where I am, [holds up laptop] I’m in one of these weird pods at the airport. [laughs]

Rachel Sennott: Hey! I haven’t been able to take a normal flight recently. Every flight has had a minimum of two hours’ delay.
JH: There’s a hurricane in New York right now and I was supposed to be on a flight this morning. I woke up at 6:30 am, it said it was delayed an hour, so I called and they put me on an earlier flight. Got to the airport extra early, then that flight was delayed two hours, which means I’d miss my connection to Barcelona. So now I’m avoiding New York and they’ve rebooked me on a flight from LA to Seattle, then Seattle to Amsterdam, and Amsterdam to Barcelona. It’s psychotic.

RS: I’m trying to think of a map, I’m like, “Is Amsterdam on the way?!” [both laugh] I feel like a fun place to start would be our first meeting – we met on Zoom.
JH: I’m getting flashbacks.

RS: This is the same thing. It felt hectic and you were travelling.
JH: You caught me in a crazy moment because I had just rented an apartment in New York for a year, which is ironic considering I Love LA is based on someone who’s from New York who moves to LA. As I landed, my team called me and they were like, “Hey, how do you feel about getting on a plane and maybe going to LA, like, now?” I was like, “Not good, why? What’s happening?” They told me it was the show with you because you guys were doing the pilot, and I was someone who could potentially be right for the show. I have been a fan of yours for a long time and was super excited at the prospect of working with you, so we ended up having this Zoom chat about the character, about the script, which then led to us doing a chemistry read via Zoom, which is always so fucking weird. I’ve done a couple, and chemistry with a screen is just a weird thing. It was very hectic, but as soon as we finished the first meeting, I was like, holy shit, we’re so on the same page, and want to make the same kind of thing. It made a lot of sense. The day after the chemistry read, they were like, “Rachel wants you to do it.” I was like, “Fuck! Amazing! I’ve got to change my entire life plan.” [both laugh] The apartment we rented in New York wasn’t going to work for my dogs and it was a whole thing, so this show became the saving grace to bail me out of a fucked situation. Instead of finding a new apartment in New York, I had to come back and shoot this amazing show with you and everyone else. It worked out in a way that is just mindblowing to me.

RS: It was crazy because I remember you talking, being like, “This is my new apartment,” and I was like, “OK… I hope you’re down to come back.” Something that I love about you is that you’re so game and open to stuff. Just that first conversation about the script, you brought so many of your own ideas. We chatted, then we were going to read and I was like, “Are you down to read?” You pulled out your phone and were like, “I guess, let me book a flight.” [both laugh] I was like, “We can do Zoom!”
JH: I didn’t know! What they had told me was, “Rachel and you are going to do a Zoom together and then you might be coming to LA to do a chemistry read.” That makes sense to me, so when you said, “I guess we’re going to read some scenes, maybe tomorrow,” I was like, “OK yeah, it’ll be later in the day because I have to fly in from…” you were immediately like, “No, Josh! Zoom!”

RS: Being an actor is like that, they’re like, “We need you in Budapest in 45 minutes, I’m so sorry.”
JH: I’ve been doing this since I was fucking nine years old, and for some reason, they still can’t figure out how to plan something with some reasonable amount of foresight. [both laugh] I can’t tell you how many times, it literally just happened to me, they’re like, “There’s this amazing new project, here’s ten pages of sides, you need to memorise them and put yourself on tape within the next two hours. It shoots in March.” And I’m like…[puts head in hands] “Nothing that you’re saying makes any sense right now, you just found out about this, and they’re shooting at the beginning of next year, but we need the tape tomorrow?” It happens all the time.

RS: Can you ride a pogo stick? We just need a video of that, it’s not in the film but we just need to know if you can. [both laugh]
JH: My sense of being game and down is from a lifetime of being trained that that is just the way it works. For any of it to function, for me to have a career, for me to do the projects I want to do, you just have to live in a constant flexible state, whether that’s travelling, life plans, or vacations. I was supposed to be on vacation with my girlfriend last week, and then they were like, “You have a photoshoot with the whole cast for the show in LA,” so I went to LA for four days. It used to stress me the fuck out for north of a decade.

RS: I’m still there.
JH: You’ll get there, Rach. It’s still stressful for sure, but it’s something you have to learn.

“The day after the chemistry read, they were like, “Rachel wants you to do it.” I was like, “Fuck! Amazing! I’ve got to change my entire life plan.””

RS: How do you learn that, though? Do you feel like it’s just time? When it happens, you’re just like, “Change of plans!”
JH: That’s literally it. Never get too attached to anything you think you’re going to be doing because it’s probably going to change.

RS: It’s so hard.
JH: You have these dreams of, “Next summer I’m going to spend a month with my girlfriend in Greece.” Cool idea man, but if you book it, you’re probably not going to do it. [laughs]

RS: Cool idea, man.
JH: Now, where I am in my life and career, I do want to have the ability to plan some more things, which just means that I’m going to be more selective. I’m past a hardcore hustle phase of my life and career. I’ve still got that dog in me, and I’m still ready to hustle when I need to.

RS: Duh?! [both laugh] It’s taking care of yourself and your relationships, totally. As you go through different chapters, being like, “What matters the most to me right now? What’s really important?” You’ll be in a moment where you aren’t getting to see your friends as much, then you’ll get to see your friends more, but you’re working less – it moves in flux.
JH: It’s interesting, I was talking with Odessa [A’zion] yesterday and she was giving me a breakdown of her press run that she’s about to go on. It’s insane, but I’m like, “Oh, to be twenty-five and a rising star again.” I told her, “You’re at a point right now in life and career where it’s going to be fucking hard.” It’s the hustle, the sacrifice, that’s part of it. I think everyone has different degrees and tolerances for how much they are willing to sacrifice and for what. It’s weighing where you are in life, what you want to accomplish, and how much you want to give up for that.

RS: After we cast you as Dylan, we workshopped the character with you and for me, Dylan is not necessarily based on anyone, but there’s a personal aspect to it. There’s some personal experience there, and I think there’s something about him that you brought to the character that wasn’t on the page. When you come to a character or role, do you sit on the script and think on it, or do you come in with your first impressions? You brought so much to the table every time we would do a scene. You always have an interesting thought or idea. Is that instinct, or is it something you’ve developed over the years?
JH: It varies project to project. Doing the show with you, it felt like so much of me was already in Dylan – I identified with him. As I was reading it, I felt instantly connected. That’s a feeling I’m always looking for. Obviously, playing characters that are vastly different, but finding a core truth that I connect to, and then from there I do get a lot of gut feelings. If I don’t fully understand why Dylan’s – or whoever I’m playing – head goes there when this happens, then it’s a conversation, and thankfully with you, it’s an in-depth, interesting, intelligent conversation. If I don’t have a gut connection to a character, I’m probably not going to pursue the part. What I loved about working with you was, many times I would come with a thought or an idea on the day of shooting or in rehearsal and you would hear me, understand me but then be like, “Actually I think maybe it’s more this,” and I love that collaborative thing, trusting in you and what you’re making. Every time we had one of those conversations and we didn’t have the same opinion on a certain item, I would always default to you because it’s your show and you know this character and how he fits into the tapestry of everything. I love that, I love being wrong, actually. I have an idea, maybe it doesn’t quite work, but when I can click and understand yours, it feels really good.

RS: Sometimes your question enlightens something else. What this job really did for me was realise that having to explain your thought process makes you think about it more and improve it. I experienced it in the writers’ room and then especially with directing, where in your head it’s like this because of this, and then someone asks you a question and you’re like, “Well, obviously it’s like this because…” Then, as you’re explaining it, you’re like, “That’s an amazing point, OK.” [Josh laughs] It challenges you, and if the idea that I had is the direction we want to go in, then I know it even more because I had to explain it or express it.
JH: 100 percent. It’s really cool because I watched that happen in real time on set. Everyone has a different approach to directing and writing, but to watch you create from such a flow sort of place was really cool, because some directors get very rigid in what they think it needs to be and when they’re challenged or questioned, they go to a more defensive place. You have respect for everyone you’re working with and for your own truth. I’ve watched you pivot and I’ve watched you defend – I’ve seen both sides of it. I’ve seen your face when somebody says something that’s not quite what you thought it should be, but then you’re like, “Actually, yeah.” You fucking nailed it, Rachel. You nailed it in the writing, you nailed it in your performance, and you nailed it in directing.

RS: That means a lot to me, Josh. I was lucky because everyone wanted the show to be great. So, when someone’s offering you a suggestion, it’s not because they’re trying to fuck with you. If it’s a question about their character, you can’t take it personally, it’s not like, “Hey, fuck you! He wouldn’t feel that!” [Josh laughs] Everyone is trying to do their job and do their job the best. I’ve been in positions before as an actor where, in the back of your mind, you’re like, “Would I do that?” You go along with it, and then later on you watch it and you’re like, “OK…”
JH: I wouldn’t have done that.

RS: I wouldn’t have done that and it looks weird. [both laugh] Collaboration is so important.
JH: Everyone wanted it to be the best, and you got the best to do that, too. From Odessa to Jordan [Firstman] to True [Whitaker], to every actor that came [through]. Everyone wanted it to be so good, believed, and did their fucking work. It’s been such a special experience working with such talented people, with scripts that are so fucking funny, and with you at the helm of it all. Truthfully, I was a bit disenchanted with this industry as a whole. I’ve been doing this for 23 fucking years, and you have this idea of what your career could be or the projects that you might get to do, these hopes and dreams. Then the reality is oftentimes something very different. I was almost in a state of acceptance of, I love making movies, I want to make them until I can no longer do that physically, but maybe I have to let go of this idea of doing certain kinds of projects and accept my place in things. I didn’t feel I deserved that, but it felt like that’s what I’m being given. This show, working with you and creating this, has reignited my excitement to be like, “No, fuck that. I can, will and want to find the coolest shit around and hustle.” So, thank you for reigniting this bullshit fucking flame. I was finally settling down. [both laugh]

RS: Just when I’m out… They pull me back in!
JH: That’s right.

RS: I so feel you. My first movie-making, Shiva Baby, with so many of my best friends, was such an enchanted experience.
JH: Wait, Shiva Baby was your first movie?

RS: Yeah.
JH: Holy shit, you’re incredible. That’s amazing, I didn’t realise that.

RS: So I was like, “Every movie is three best friends hanging out in the backyard with a camera.” [Josh laughs] Then you have shoots that are hard or you have things where you didn’t feel you did a good job, and that’s just life. But I felt on this too, that I’m able to use my voice as a creator and with such a special group of people. Something else I really struggle with is living in the present moment, and during this season I really tried to be like, “Wake up!”
JH: Tried and succeeded.

“It felt like so much of me was already in Dylan – I identified with him. As I was reading it, I felt instantly connected.”

RS: Throughout 23 years in this industry, looking back, do you have key moments that you feel were turning points for you?
JH: Sometimes I get asked a question, which is this sort of thing: “When did you know that you made it?” I was like, “Literally when I was nine years old and I got cast in one thing.” As a naive nine-year-old from Kentucky and with no one else from my family in this industry, I had no idea what lay ahead, of the challenges of being a child actor, succeeding in that, and then transitioning
into a teenager, a young adult and then an adult. It’s not often that people get to make a transition and keep doing this throughout their childhood into adulthood. When I was nine, the first thing I ever got cast in was a bible study video in Southern Ohio, I was ‘kid standing with goat.’

RS: Oh my god.
JH: I was literally holding a goat on a leash. I’ve never seen this video.

RS: We’re going to find it.
JH: When I got on set, I was like, “I’m an actor now, and that’s what I do for the rest of my life.” I always think that’s a defining moment, as a child I was never driven by fame or money, those weren’t concepts that my little brain had even grappled with. When I saw kids in movies and understood it was a thing I could do, then I was like, “Well, I’m going to go do that.” There were a few big career-defining moments. The Kids Are All Right was a really big one for me because it was such a quality group of people. Lisa Cholodenko, an amazing writer-director who I’ve always loved, and then you have Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo and Mia Wasikowska. I was so blown away to work with this group of people, and such a great script and amazing process. Then it was well received critically and we went to Sundance. At Sundance, we were at the premiere and I hadn’t seen the movie. The movie starts, and it’s very funny but I had no idea that it was supposed to be comedic in any way. I was sixteen, I was watching this movie and all of Sundance was laughing at it and I’m literally going, “Oh my god, they’re fucking laughing at this. This is a family drama about a gay mom couple.” Then afterwards, I went to Lisa and was like, “How do you think it went?” She was like, “Oh, it fucking played amazing,” I was like, “People are laughing…” She went, “Josh, it’s a comedy,” and I was like, “We made a comedy?!” [laughs] It went right over my head.

RS: You’re like, “I was in a drama!”
JH: Exactly.

RS: That’s how you have to play comedy. The second you’re in on the joke or playing for laughs, it doesn’t work.
JH: It falls apart. I’m just happy no one told me it was a comedy going into it.

RS: That’s so funny.
JH: I learned that lesson. I was like, “This is a disaster, people are laughing. They don’t take this lesbian couple seriously; people aren’t ready for this.” [both laugh] Obviously, The Hunger Games was a massive turning point in so many ways. You can’t prepare for what that does. I’d had some notoriety and people would recognise me fairly often because I’d done movies as a teenager. But on a global scale, having all of your anonymity completely gone was a tough pill to swallow. I loved making those movies, and people love watching them.

RS: They’re amazing.
JH: They’re great, they’re really good

“You feel protected with great creators and great directors, the pressure is there, but you have a great team around you to try and build that into something cool.”

RS: I’m sorry, can I just say I was gagged when I saw them for the first time. Then my boyfriend had never seen them and I was like, “You’ve gotta see these movies, they are so good.” We watched it, and I was like, “This is even better than I remember.” They’re so emotional, intense, and beautifully shot.
JH: Thanks. It’s always a little scary when you’re adapting something that has such a beloved fanbase already through the books – there’s a lot of pressure. The amount of conversations that were had about the colour of my hair was insane. That level of expectation and pressure. But it’s not dissimilar to what we made with I Love LA, there was pressure in this as well. It’s Rachel’s fucking thing! It’s HBO, and it’s the next this and that. With Hunger Games and with what you’re making, they’re very similar. [both laugh]

RS: We go into the arena.
JH: The arena of Silverlake. But you feel protected with great creators and great directors, the pressure is there, but you have a great team around you to try and build that into something cool. The Kids Are All Right and Hunger Games are probably the two biggest turning points. Then Future Man with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, that was my first time doing TV, and it was so fucking fun. I fell in love with it, I fell in love with comedy too, because I’d never really knowingly done much comedy. [Rachel laughs] Getting the chance to go big, it’s slapstick-y, it’s over the top. It’s so fun to stretch that side of yourself.

RS: You’re so good at comedy because you lean into the truth, you know it’s a comedy and you know how to do comedy, but you’re playing it very honestly, which I think is a rare balance to have.
JH: Thank you.

RS: I want to bang out some fun questions. You’re super not online. What convinced you to be more online?
JH: You guys. [laughs]

RS: Us!
JH: I didn’t have an Instagram for years and then when I did Future Man, Hulu was like, “We’d really like him to have Instagram,” and I was like, “Cool, he would really like to not have Instagram.” I’m such a curmudgeon sometimes, I am so stuck in my ways and stubborn, my Taurus side really is on full display sometimes. I am also very cynical in many ways, and I see a lot of the negatives that come along with social media and how it’s shaping society, young people and the idea of what you need to try and prove that you are to the world. That gives me a lot of resistance to it, but I’m learning through you guys how you can use it to find the fun and the joy. You guys bring a lot of joy.

RS: Josh, your TikToks are bringing people joy. They’re bringing me joy.
JH: Oh, good. [laughs]

RS: How do you unwind after a long day at work?
JH: Spotify is really getting to know me well, my algorithm is finely tuned right now. After a long day, I get home and I like the Spotify Daylist. I got home last night after the long shoot and it was like ‘Evening Saxophone Funk Brazilian’ and I was like, “Yes, please.” A little groove, I was packing, doing some laundry. I’m very music-oriented, so for sure, getting home, music and then when my dogs are here, just taking them for walks and spending time with my girlfriend, obviously. That’s number one.

RS: Love. OK, hidden talents? Secret skills? I know one.
JH: Which one?

RS: Motorcycling.
JH: Oh yeah, motorcycling. I would classify that as an ability that anyone can do if you just learn it, but I grew up in Kentucky riding dirt bikes, and a motorcycle was the natural progression. I make a lot of sound effects, you’ve heard my cricket sounds. I can blow bubbles with my spit.

RS: Love.
JH: As a kid on set, I didn’t go to school. I went to ‘set school,’ but I was isolated a lot, so I had to find ways to entertain myself.

RS: So, blowing spit bubbles. “I got really into spit bubbles and dirt biking, and it’s incredible.” [both laugh] Last question, first piece of art that inspired you? It could be anything: a play, a show, a movie, a song.
JH: It’s a typical fucking straight guy answer and it sucks but it’s true…

RS: That’s OK, Josh. It’s OK to be straight.
JH: I’m fine being a straight white dude, but the basic answer is annoying. When I was nine, my parents let me watch Fight Club, which is kind of wild, but when I saw that, it broke my brain as a nine-year-old in so many ways. As a little kid, I was like existential crises left and right, “What does this all mean? What is life? What is existence?” Then when I saw Fight Club, it was speaking to that, a person that had a bifurcated existence, and I was like, “Holy shit.” That and Donnie Darko, those are two movies that really blew my mind. My dad always had a really interesting taste in music. I grew up listening to Sade, Rob Zombie, The Prodigy, Björk, these crazy mixes of genre, stuff that was very weird and quasi-avant-garde in ways that made me fall in love with musical expression and creativity.

RS: I love it.
JH: That was a damn good interview, Rachel.

Interview originally published in The HERO Winter Annual 2025.

HAIR ADAM MARKARIAN;
MAKE-UP ZAHEER SUKHNANDAN;
PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT LIAM BOOKER;
FASHION ASSISTANTS LIV VITALE AND THOMAS VARRA