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<\/p>\n\n\tSeveral years ago, Odessa A\u2019zion had a promising audition to join the cast of HBO\u2019s Euphoria. She read in front of casting director Jennifer Venditti, known for her uncanny ability to discover fresh talent, including the show\u2019s stars Sydney Sweeney and Jacob Elordi. A\u2019zion, only a teenager at the time, earned a callback and a meeting with creator Sam Levinson.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cHe asked me to come in and do the table reads with the whole cast, so I knew he was really serious,\u201d she says. But the COVID pandemic abruptly halted production, and A\u2019zion never heard from the Euphoria team again. The part went to someone else (she declines to say whom), and she \u2014 perhaps unfairly \u2014 blames herself. \u201cI mean, it\u2019s my fault because I don\u2019t think that I followed up or asked about it or anything,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Myles Hendrik<\/p>\n
\n\tAll was not in vain, however. Her Hollywood fate would again rest in the hands of Venditti when, four years later, Josh Safdie was starting to put together Marty Supreme<\/a>. It was to be his first solo feature after the dissolution of his longtime creative partnership with brother Benny, with whom he\u2019d made the propulsive hit Uncut Gems. Safdie was looking for someone to hold her own opposite the already-attached Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet, someone who could bring a level of mischief, yearning and a Fievel Mousekewitz energy to the role. He also wanted a discovery, an actress who would present to the audience zero pretense or baggage. Safdie asked Levinson and Venditti for recommendations, and they suggested A\u2019zion. A few months and several auditions and Zoom meetings later, A\u2019zion got a FaceTime from Safdie.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cHe\u2019s like, \u2018Odessa, Odessa, Odessa, this is where we\u2019re going to film the end of the movie, and this is Jack Fisk, who\u2019s doing all the production design, and that stage over there, that\u2019s going to be Wembley Stadium, look how incredible this all is,\u2019 \u201d A\u2019zion recounts. \u201cI was thinking, \u2018Does this mean I get the part?\u2019 But I was too afraid to ask. And I can\u2019t remember a lot of what he said next, but I remember the last part so clearly. He said, \u2018I can\u2019t wait to make this movie better with you.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n \n\tNow, in early 2026, the 25-year-old is sitting in a caf\u00e9 near her Los Angeles home, unpacking her experience as the breakout success of the season. Marty Supreme is A24\u2019s highest-grossing film in North America at $81 million and counting (it\u2019s also the studio\u2019s most expensive, at $70 million) and an awards-season darling, with nine Oscar nominations, including best picture. She\u2019s still coming down from her Golden Globes high, which she says was the first time she truly understood the impact of the movie\u2019s success. \u201cSteven fucking Spielberg came up to me and was like, \u2018Can I say hi to you?\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n \n\tShe\u2019s also one of the new faces of HBO\u2019s Sunday night programming; as the seemingly cursed third season of Euphoria faltered through delays and rewrites, the network bet on a new crop of hot young talent with I Love LA, the ensemble comedy from creator Rachel Sennott that both trades in and excoriates zillennial internet-fame culture. She stars as Tallulah, a TikToker trying to pivot a viral moment into lasting fame and fortune with the help of her best friend and manager (Sennott). The network was quick to renew the show for a second season (\u201cI want Odessa to do many seasons of the show,\u201d says HBO comedy boss Amy Gravitt), and the show has launched a flurry of think pieces and discourse, much like its spiritual predecessor Girls. \u201cHonestly, the first thing that made me realize the show was working was the fan-cams,\u201d says Sennott. \u201cSeeing all those videos, or people saying, like, \u2018I\u2019m such a Tallulah.\u2019 I was sending them to everyone [in the cast], like, \u2018You\u2019re a star, you\u2019re a star.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n \n\tA\u2019zion knows that she\u2019s in the middle of an atmospheric rise. The signs are everywhere, including being asked to do her first major magazine cover. But despite her onscreen bravado, and growing up in the industry as the daughter of Emmy-nominated actress Pamela Adlon, she feels woefully underprepared. There\u2019s the schedule \u2014 the slog of doing back-to-back press tours, plus an awards campaign, all while starting production on her next (yet-to-be-announced) project on location in Montreal. And there are the eyeballs, both IRL (she has stage fright) and online. \u201cI\u2019m not used to this many people paying attention to me,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tDior jacket, shirt, scarf, jeans, sneakers; A\u2019zion\u2019s jewelry.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Myles Hendrik<\/p>\n \n\tBefore the publication of her cover story, A\u2019zion\u00a0announced that she exited\u00a0Sean Durkin\u2019s A24 film<\/a> Deep Cuts\u00a0following online backlash to her casting given the character is described in the book as half Mexican and half Jewish. A\u2019zion apologized and explained on her Instagram Stories that she took to heart the\u00a0comments<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0concerns<\/a>\u00a0about whitewashing the adaptation of Holly Brickley\u2019s novel: \u201cI\u2019m so sorry that this happened\u2026I\u2019m so pissed y\u2019all, I hadn\u2019t read the book and should have paid more attention to all aspects of Zoe before accepting\u2026 I\u2019d never take a role from someone else that\u2019s meant to do it. That SHOULD do it! That\u2019s not me. There are a plentitude of people more than capable of playing this role and I am NOT one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tShe lives in Los Angeles\u2019 Mid-City neighborhood, a laid-back, family-filled area that has the opposite vibe of the ultra-hip Eastside neighborhood that the I Love LA characters call home. Think less Marty Supreme jacket and more Vuori zip-up. She has three roommates, a mix of friends and internet connections. When she\u2019s traveling for work, they step in to take care of her menagerie of pets; currently, it consists of two dogs, two cats and three tortoises, but at one point there were snakes, a bearded dragon, ferrets and bunnies. \u201cShe\u2019s messy, but in the way a planet has moons stuck in its orbit,\u201d explains Safdie.<\/p>\n \n\t***<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tSaint Laurent jacket, shirt, shorts, sunglasses (on bedstead); A\u2019zion\u2019s boots, jewelry.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Myles Hendrik<\/p>\n \n\tShe arrives at the coffee shop carrying an iced coffee she made at home and declines my offer to treat her to something more. She hasn\u2019t developed the taste for luxury goods that her Marty co-star Chalamet has honed over the years of receiving blockbuster-level salaries (and dating a billionaire). She\u2019s dressed in her signature wardrobe of baggy jeans, baggy top, vintage boots. When asked how she\u2019s celebrated big moments like her recent projects\u2019 successes or SAG\u2019s Actor Award nom, she comes up empty. \u201cI didn\u2019t do anything the day of the nominations; I think I literally just ate pickles,\u201d she says with a laugh. \u201cI\u2019ll always be eating pickles.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tTo some degree, A\u2019zion\u2019s career feels preordained. Her mother has been a respected Hollywood fixture for decades (best known for Better Things, she also worked on King of the Hill and Californication); her father also worked as a producer and director (though not nearly as successfully as her mother). Her sister Gideon Adlon, five years her senior, is an actress best known for the 2018 comedy Blockers. \u201cI remember that I knew of her,\u201d says her I Love LA co-star True Whitaker, daughter of Forest. \u201cHer older sister knew my older sister, and L.A. is kind of small in that sense.\u201d It\u2019s an upbringing easily (and often) dismissed as one of nepo baby privilege, but the reality is more complicated.<\/p>\n \n\tShe attended CHAMPS Charter High School of the Arts in Van Nuys but then went to boarding school in Germany for a year (her parents divorced when she was young, and her father has lived in Germany ever since). But she didn\u2019t speak the language, so she was sent to a special language institution. By the time she went back to the boarding school, she was behind in the actual curriculum, so she came back to L.A. and took summer school classes to catch up. A\u2019zion describes the experience as \u201cweird\u201d but not traumatic.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tOn Left: Greg Lauren shirt, waistcoat; Odessa\u2019s own jewelry; Christian Louboutin boots. On Right: Simone Rocha sequin dress, wool pants; Odessa\u2019s own \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Myles Hendrik (2)<\/p>\n \n\tWhen she was 16, her mother\u2019s show Better Things premiered. It ran for five seasons on FX, starring Adlon as a divorced actress raising three daughters on her own. Adlon received widespread critical acclaim, plus an Emmy nomination and a Peabody Award for the series, which is widely known to be thinly veiled autobiography. The series depicted her onscreen daughters experiencing common coming-of-age issues like puberty but also more heightened and vulnerable moments; the middle sister, Frankie, has a period of gender dysphoria and is often shown being quite cruel to her mother. Adlon has always insisted that Better Things\u2018 storylines are exaggerated, but the comparisons to real life are still a sore spot for A\u2019zion, who began using a stage name inspired by her middle name (Zion) in 2021, and she\u2019s still uneasy talking about it.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cPeople will assume things based off of watching the show,\u201d she reads from a note she has saved on her phone, which she wrote in advance, expecting the question. \u201cAnd all I can say is it\u2019s very much from one person\u2019s perspective of possible shared experiences.\u201d When asked whether watching her mother\u2019s career inspired her to become an actress herself, she is equally guarded. \u201cIt\u2019s really hard to talk about without getting into personal specifics that I probably shouldn\u2019t let the world know about,\u201d she says. Did her mom try to talk her out of it? \u201cAgain, that\u2019s really hard to answer.\u201d A\u2019zion declined to discuss her current relationship with her mother.<\/p>\n \n\tAdlon declined to participate in an interview, but she spoke in depth about the show\u2019s impact on her daughters during a 2016 episode of NPR\u2019s Fresh Air. \u201cAt first, I was being very protective of [my daughters] in terms of what I was doing and the material so my kids didn\u2019t feel like they were being co-opted or that anything was besting them,\u201d she told host Terry Gross. Eventually, she says, her kids got \u201cvery involved\u201d in helping her cast the actresses on the show. \u201cThey\u2019re very much a part of it, and the show is completely dedicated to them and all that they do. The show really gave them a voice.\u201d She hasn\u2019t spoken publicly about A\u2019zion\u2019s newfound success but did post both the trailer for Marty Supreme and the poster for I Love LA on her Instagram.<\/p>\n \n\t***<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tGreg Lauren jacket, pants; Iguana sequin top; Odessa\u2019s own ring.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Myles Hendrik<\/p>\n \n\tThe first job A\u2019zion booked was a five-episode arc on Nashville, playing a teenage runaway who befriends Maisy Stella\u2019s Daphne Conrad; she was 17 when it aired. \u201cI had no fucking clue who anyone was on set,\u201d she recalls with a laugh. \u201cMeaning their job positions. The director versus the first AD versus the gaffer. And every time we did a take, I was like, \u2018Am I doing this right? Should I be looking at a different spot?\u2019 I was so young and bad, and I hope people don\u2019t judge me for my early work because I feel like I\u2019ve come a long way.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t(Whitaker says A\u2019zion is one of the few actors who always knows whether her takes went well. \u201cShe\u2019s not afraid to be like, \u2018You know what, I didn\u2019t love that one,\u2019 and she\u2019s willing to fight for a take that she feels good about,\u201d she explains.)<\/p>\n \n\tJobs followed steadily, if quietly, from there. She starred in the one-season-long CBS sitcom Fam opposite Nina Dobrev and on the Netflix high school drama Grand Army before pivoting to indie movies as a way to figure out what sort of material she connected to most; she says her role as Yara Shahidi\u2019s best friend in 2023\u2019s Sitting in Bars With Cake was the first time she really connected to a character. \u201cI remember I saw her in this movie Good Girl Jane,\u201d says Sennott. \u201cShe\u2019s a supporting character, and I was like, \u2018Who is that girl? She\u2019s so magnetic and charismatic.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n \n\tIn early 2024, Sennott was working on what was then just a pilot for HBO, inspired by her first year living in L.A. A\u2019zion heard about the auditions and sent in self-tapes for the roles of Alani (the lovable nepo baby played by Whitaker) and Tallulah. The sides described a scene in which Tallulah runs across the street and is nearly hit by a car, and A\u2019zion decided to do it in her backyard.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tOn Left: Greg Lauren jacket; \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Myles Hendrik (2)<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI was always told that casting directors want you up against a blank wall, that they don\u2019t want your reader doing too much, but I think that\u2019s bullshit,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd as soon as I stopped listening to that and doing what I thought was right, I started booking.\u201d HBO brought A\u2019zion in to read with Sennott in front of Gravitt and CEO Casey Bloys. Says Sennott, \u201cI just felt so activated by her in our scene, and I was like, \u2018Oh my God, it\u2019s her.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n \n\tBy all accounts, the character of Tallulah is the show\u2019s chaos agent. She\u2019s brash and bold \u2014 Sennott points out that, according to an often-missed Easter egg in an early episode, she\u2019s also a Gemini \u2014 and her wardrobe wouldn\u2019t be out of place at a club of either the night or strip variety, even if the scene finds her at a funeral. \u201cFirst and foremost, the thing that is most different about Odessa and Tallulah is wardrobe,\u201d says Josh Hutcherson, who plays Sennott\u2019s easygoing boyfriend on the series. \u201cOdessa is always dressed in oversized, boyish, super cool clothes. Tallulah is wearing next to nothing most of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tA\u2019zion struggled with the chasm. \u201cPlaying someone who\u2019s out there, personality-wise, is fun, and I know I\u2019m not the quietest bitch on the block, but clothing-wise, that was really difficult for me,\u201d she says. When they taped the first iteration of the pilot, she pushed back on the wardrobe. She also asked to do her own hair and makeup. \u201cI have a lot of mental disorders, and I get really overwhelmed when people are touching me and in my face and in my hair \u2014 it\u2019s an anxiety thing.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tSennott had never worked with anyone who requested that before but easily obliged: \u201cIt was great, she\u2019s amazing at it, and I was like, \u2018Girl, I\u2019m about to hire you to do my hair.\u2019 \u201d A rumor started going around on TikTok late last year that A\u2019zion\u2019s hair is fake, but her co-stars are quick to shut it down. \u201cShe\u2019s Miss Hair, she takes forever to accentuate every little curl, but it\u2019s not a fucking wig, let me tell you,\u201d says Whitaker.<\/p>\n \n\tBy the time HBO ordered the pilot to a full season and the cast and crew reconvened on set, A\u2019zion had come around on the wardrobe. \u201cI was like, \u2018Make the shorts shorter, I know who Tallulah is now,\u2019 \u201d she says. \u201cShe\u2019s confident, and I\u2019m really grateful to her because she helped me get more comfortable with my own body.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWhen A\u2019zion learned about the role in Marty Supreme, she knew the character instantly. To her, Rachel is just like Marty \u2014 a woman who will do whatever it takes to get to her end goal (money and security), who is driven, emotional, foolish, enigmatic; it was instantly clear to her that it was a role designed to make an actress pop.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tValentino suit, sweater; Selim Mouzannar earrings; A\u2019zion\u2019s jewelry; stylist\u2019s socks.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Myles Hendrik<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tVintage Vionnet dress from The Archive X Yana; Odessa\u2019s own jeans; Handsome Stockholm gloves; Loree Rodkin rings.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Myles Hendrik<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt was so juicy and meaty, and I got to do everything: I was kidnapped, I was shot, I was a beggar, I was a really strong, independent woman going through an emotional roller coaster,\u201d she says. \u201cI knew people would respond to that character no matter who played her.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tFor her audition, Safdie and Venditti asked her to self-tape a scene in which Rachel calls on a pay phone and shakes down Abel Ferrara\u2019s gangster character Ezra Mishkin. She was filming the horror flick Until Dawn in Budapest, and there were old-timey phone booths all over the city, so A\u2019zion set up her tripod \u2014 she brings it with her everywhere \u2014 and asked her co-star Belmont Cameli to read as Mishkin. The audition, which A24 released on its social media channels, has since gone viral.<\/p>\n \n\tWhen Safdie met her in person for the first time, she brought him and Chalamet souvenirs from Budapest. \u201cShe showed up with a shoulder bag that she seemed prepared to live out of for weeks,\u201d he says, \u201cand gave us these strange objects, which spoke to how she spent her downtime.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tSaint Laurent, shirt, shorts, sunglasses (on bedstead); Odessa\u2019s own boots, jewelry.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Myles Hendrik<\/p>\n \n\tMarty was an easy yes \u2014 she\u2019d long had both Safdie and Chalamet on her own wish list of dream collaborators \u2014 but not an easy job. They filmed exterior shots during the winter while A\u2019zion was dressed in a pencil skirt. Several scenes called for her to scream or hyperventilate, which started to affect her psychosomatically. The prosthetic pregnant belly she wore gave her welts and cuts (she whips out her phone to show dozens of photos she took of her injuries, which did look particularly gruesome). And she did all this while couch-surfing in New York.<\/p>\n \n\tDuring short productions, films often put actors up in a hotel, but on longer shoots the industry standard is to offer a relocation fee and leave it up to the actor to find their housing. \u201cVery few times does that actually cover rent,\u201d she explains. A\u2019zion first landed at a friend\u2019s place in Brooklyn but soon found herself in need of a new arrangement, so she called Whitaker. \u201cShe told me I could come stay with her, but she was living there, too, so we were either sleeping in her bed together or I\u2019d sleep on the couch,\u201d A\u2019zion says. If she needed solitude to memorize her lines, she\u2019d put on headphones and walk around the East Village. \u201cI\u2019d give her an A [as a roommate],\u201d says Whitaker. \u201cShe\u2019s really clean \u2014 she\u2019s very OCD about it.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tStylist\u2019s vintage Maurizio Pecoraro coat; vintage Saint Laurent Mens pants; rosary necklace from The Archive X Yana; A\u2019zion\u2019s jewelry.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Myles Hendrik<\/p>\n \n\tDespite growing up the way she did, A\u2019zion says she didn\u2019t truly understand the way the industry worked until this year. Her previous jobs either didn\u2019t garner enough success to warrant a press tour or \u2014 in the case of Grand Army \u2014 the pandemic prevented her from going to premieres and junkets. She watched her friend [and Better Things star] Mikey Madison go through the machine last year with Anora but says that it didn\u2019t prepare her for the intensity of instant exposure. \u201cThe first time we did a Q&A after a screening, I was sweating and shaking,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \n\tShe has a prescription for beta blockers, the preferred red carpet antidote of several of her I Love LA co-stars, but she\u2019s so far declined to take them because she\u2019s more scared of the possibility that they might make her feel weird than she is of her current anxiety. I ask if she\u2019s going to prepare a speech for the Actor Awards, and her eyes widen. \u201cI think I\u2019m going to have a heart attack just from you saying that,\u201d she says. She shared a table at the Golden Globes with Chalamet and Rose Byrne \u2014 Mary Bronstein, the director of If I Had Legs I\u2019d Kick You, is married to Marty Supreme co-writer Ronald Bronstein \u2014 and watched in horror as the room\u2019s eyes turned their way. \u201cWhen they both won, they\u2019re so deserving, but all I was thinking about is, \u2018Now they have to go do the scariest thing on planet Earth: go up there on that stage and talk in front of people they admire.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tValentino suit, sweater; Selim Mouzannar earrings; A\u2019zion\u2019s jewelry.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Myles Hendrik<\/p>\n \n\tThe natural question for someone experiencing this type of moment is, \u201cWhat\u2019s next?\u201d but A\u2019zion insists she doesn\u2019t have a good answer. There will be more projects coming: the movie she\u2019s filming in Montreal and the second season of I Love LA, which doesn\u2019t have a production date. She\u2019s been making music for years \u2014 she took formal piano lessons as a kid and has since learned to play the guitar and the ukulele \u2014 and spent any free moment of 2025 in a recording studio, with the goal of releasing an album this year.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt\u2019s really hard after doing Marty Supreme to think about what I would do next because that was my ultimate goal,\u201d she says. \u201cI guess I just hope to keep playing insane women. I hope I\u2019m never the straight man. I just want the juicy, fucked-up roles. I will play whatever insane character somebody wants me to play.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tOdessa A\u2019zion<\/a> on TV Screens<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Myles Hendrik<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\ntee, jewelry.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nvintage Comme des Gar\u00e7ons pants; rosary necklace from The Archive X Yana; Haynes tank; Christian Louboutin boots; A\u2019zion\u2019s\u202fbelt, jewelry. On Right: Vintage Vivienne Westwood coat,
\nboots from The Archive X Yana; Iguana vintage tee; Greg Lauren pants
\nLoree Rodkin rings; Shay pinky ring; Misho ring; The Archive X Yana rings.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n