{"id":401436,"date":"2025-11-24T14:05:22","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T14:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/401436\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T14:05:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T14:05:22","slug":"quenlin-blackwell-on-her-i-love-la-guest-role-pursuing-acting-and-the-business-of-social-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/401436\/","title":{"rendered":"Quenlin Blackwell on Her ‘I Love LA’ Guest Role, Pursuing Acting, and the Business of Social Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Quenlin Blackwell<\/a> joins our Zoom, she\u2019s off-camera, slightly breathless, and sitting behind the steering wheel, pulling out of the driveway on her way to an acting audition. This encounter is a far cry from how audiences meet the content creator in the latest episode of HBO\u2019s I Love LA<\/a>, for which Blackwell cameos as a dramatized version of herself: With winged eyeliner, mesh stockings stretched to her knees, and champagne in hand, she hosts a party at the actor Elijah Wood\u2019s house, where Odessa A\u2019zion\u2019s character, Tallulah, hopes to capitalize on Blackwell\u2019s virality. The irony, of course, is that A\u2019zion and Blackwell are friends in real life, and Blackwell is no stranger to shaping a character from her own persona. <\/p>\n

The Dallas-born Blackwell\u2014who currently counts 13.1 million followers on TikTok, 3.2 million on YouTube, and 4.2 million on Instagram\u2014first got her start uploading videos to YouTube around 2009, when she was not yet a preteen. It wasn\u2019t until the mid-2010s, when she started creating comedic content for the now-defunct app Vine, that her profile exploded. Since then, she\u2019s only expanded her online empire, becoming one of the better-known content creators hustling through the attention economy, as well as one of the most recognizable influencers in Los Angeles, the fact of which I Love LA makes no secret. <\/p>\n

\"quenlinMyles Hendrik<\/p>\n

Quenlin Blackwell at the premiere of I Love LA.<\/p>\n

Blackwell is proud of the business she\u2019s built with her internet career, but she\u2019s keen to become an actress in Hollywood as well as on social media. A few years ago, she signed up for acting lessons through the Deborah Lemen Acting Studio, which she inadvertently discovered next to a Gelson\u2019s Market in Los Angeles. Now, she hopes I Love LA marks only the first in a long line of TV and film projects. After initially auditioning for multiple parts in I Love LA, Blackwell earned a role as a character different from herself. But after the Rachel Sennott<\/a>-led project underwent a revision, Sennott told Blackwell it would \u201cbe more \u2018L.A.\u2019 if you play you.\u201d Blackwell agreed and returned to set\u2014this time, to play a hyperbolic version of her influencer self, complete with a secret \u201cclick farm\u201d manipulating engagement data through dozens of old phones. <\/p>\n

Although the \u201cclick farm\u201d is a fictionalized gag meant to frighten off A\u2019zion\u2019s newbie influencer Tallulah, Blackwell has no qualms discussing the very real strategizing that internet fame like hers requires. \u201cThe social media landscape has turned into a business, rather than a pastime,\u201d she says. Hollywood is no different, she knows, but she believes acting nevertheless allows her to tap into a less analytic side of herself. \u201cI\u2019m more heady in how I approach the internet,\u201d she explains. \u201cVersus, with acting, I feel as though my heart is my guiding meter. This career evolution has been about getting away from my head and into the first spark that began it all: bringing characters to life and wanting to find myself deeper into these characters.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"quenlin<\/p>\n

Phillip Faraone<\/p>\n

She concludes, \u201cI feel like the internet gives you this skewed perspective of yourself, and that you can find yourself again in acting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahead, Blackwell discusses her approach to dramatizing herself for I Love LA; the evolving business of content creation; and why Hollywood still holds so much appeal. <\/p>\n

What was it like to play a fictionalized version of yourself? I\u2019d imagine that might be a weird headspace to get into as an actress. <\/p>\n

It was actually pretty seamless, because I think any character I play, I\u2019m playing it from a part of myself already\u2014this zoomed-in part of my personality. <\/p>\n

It was a collaboration between the directors, the writers, and I when I was on set. I kind of just did what I already do [online], when I\u2019m my own director, writer, and producer [for social media content]. I do a take one way, see how it reads, and then try it another way. And because I was playing this dramatized version of myself, I could go to extreme places and pull it back, rather than have to do all of the identity research and breakdown you would for a character. Because I was playing this version of me, and I know me.<\/p>\n

This version of Quenlin Blackwell has a darkly funny, deeply serious approach to content creation. She won\u2019t stop until she gets the perfect take. Even though this episode was obviously intended as exaggerated and satirical, how true to life did this \u201cQuen\u201d\u2019s approach feel to you? <\/p>\n

It felt pretty true to life. I\u2019m really heady when it comes to the internet, because I feel like it\u2019s this language I understood how to speak before a lot of people did. And it\u2019s my baby. The conversations that that version of myself was having with Tallulah are conversations I\u2019ve had before.<\/p>\n

These people come into this industry, and it\u2019s supposed to be such a free space to explore who you are and be paid adequately for it. But so many creators have been pulled into these evil, predatory deals. Every time I see someone new, I\u2019m like, \u201cDo you have a lawyer? Do you have a business manager?\u201d Because it\u2019s a job. People act like the internet isn\u2019t a job; it\u2019s completely a job. And so I feel like the character in I Love LA was approaching the internet like how I do: like a job. <\/p>\n

\"quenHBO<\/p>\n

Quen Blackwell as herself in I Love LA.<\/p>\n

At one point, your character tells Tallulah, \u201cIf you stop for a second, you will fucking disappear.\u201d That is so dystopian, and yet I think it\u2019s how many people online feel. Do you ever feel that way yourself? <\/p>\n

Yeah. But I think, beyond the internet, that\u2019s the reality of the entertainment industry. The entertainment industry is based on constant entertainment, and if you don\u2019t want to consistently entertain, someone else will. And the quality of entertainment matters. I agree, in a way, that if you stop for a second, you\u2019ll disappear. But I also think, if you are too indulgent and give too much, that you\u2019ll lose your spark.<\/p>\n

So I think it\u2019s: If you stop caring for a second, you\u2019ll disappear. If you stop giving your heart to what you\u2019re doing, you\u2019ll disappear. Because there\u2019s people who get complacent and they\u2019re like, \u201cOh, I made a couple bucks. Let me chill out for a week.\u201d A true artist is always creating. Now, they might not always be monetizing their creations, but if you stop creating art, you kind of stop being an artist, in my opinion. Creating art is thinking deeply. Creating art is having a fulfilling conversation with somebody who understands where you\u2019re coming from, but I think if you stop that, you do disappear. Spiritually and literally.<\/p>\n

How has your approach to content creation evolved over the years, and how does that evolution factor into your desire to act?<\/p>\n

I got my start in content creation before it was a career to be in. I feel like the difference between me and other people who post on the internet\u2014and who create a living and an audience out of it\u2014is I didn\u2019t identify myself as an influencer. I was just posting how everyone else does, and it garnered an audience. <\/p>\n

Normally, if you have a dramatic flair, a spark for the arts, you would go to school for it and hone your craft. But the internet shortcuts that process, for better and for worse. Some of these people who could be incredible actors, incredible musicians, incredible painters…they\u2019re given the career before they get to tweak their craft and figure out what type of artist they want to be. That\u2019s kind of the transition\u2014or addition\u2014I\u2019m making with acting. I know my craft, and I\u2019m finally getting the space and opportunity to teeter it into the artist I want to be in the future. <\/p>\n

Have you always been interested in acting?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s something I always wanted to do. My first YouTube videos are me doing characters. Every video I\u2019ve posted on the internet is pretty much a character, in its own way. I\u2019ve always wanted to be an actress; it\u2019s just that understanding the steps to becoming one has taken me some time: getting the information, understanding what schools I need to go to, and what I want to be in the acting industry, and what type of characters I want to play. <\/p>\n

\"\ufeffquenHBO<\/p>\n

Quen Blackwell with Odessa A\u2019zion in I Love LA.<\/p>\n

What, in your opinion, are some of the biggest differences between the internet content-creation landscape and the Hollywood landscape? Given those differences, why does Hollywood appeal to you? <\/p>\n

I think because of the legacy of Hollywood. The difference I see between the internet and Hollywood\u2014and these other traditional forms of entertainment\u2014is the age of the craft and the infrastructures that have been built in those spaces. The internet world is pretty new. It\u2019s still in its infancy, and you can feel that in the type of management, the type of suits that are involved in it. Whereas, in the acting industry, it\u2019s so rich in history, and there\u2019s a proper way to do it and go about it. I am a Capricorn. I love structure; I love strategy. I love being able to take in some information and apply it to my life. And that\u2019s what makes acting so appealing to me. There\u2019s a set formula on how to achieve great things and be a great actor.<\/p>\n

With the internet, you\u2019re kind of throwing things at a wall and hoping it works. And when it works, you\u2019re trying to figure out what to do with the thing that works now, because there\u2019s no history to it; there\u2019s no map to it. I don\u2019t want to shit on the internet, but it is young. I think people have an issue with the internet\u2019s infancy. But I think young things are great. I think the rawest form of talent is from the youth.<\/p>\n

I just hope that, for those people in traditional forms of entertainment, they can learn to appreciate the infancy and the newness of the internet, and to teach [internet creators] how to be seasoned entertainers. Because all of us have the spark and the energy\u2014we just need guidance from the people who have done it before the internet was ever a thing. <\/p>\n

What was the biggest lesson you learned on the set of I Love LA?<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t got to be perfect to do a good job.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your dream acting project?<\/p>\n

Oh my God. A horror or psychological thriller. It would be one of my dreams, truly.<\/p>\n

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. <\/p>\n

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