Top, Valentino. Jeans, Stella McCartney.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
A week ago, Odessa A\u2019zion felt like a loser. It was the night before this year\u2019s Oscar nominations, and she was in Montreal, shooting her next film, an untitled project about a pair of estranged sisters, played by Sarah Paulson and Naomi Watts. By that point, A\u2019zion had been on her first-ever awards-show run for her breakout performance as the subtly savvy Rachel opposite Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet in Josh Safdie\u2019s table tennis opus Marty Supreme<\/em> (now A24\u2019s biggest domestic hit), for which she scored nominations in the Best Supporting Actress category for the New York Film Critics Online and the Actor Awards (formerly the SAG Awards).<\/p>\n A\u2019zion is famously superstitious. As a kid, she tells me, she slept encircled by stuffed animals that all had to be touching and drew an alien on her pillow because she \u201cthought the animals would protect me from the aliens.\u201d She usually wouldn\u2019t have watched the livecast at all and tries not to get caught up in the awards-show hype. But for the Oscars, she broke protocol and watched the nominations in her hotel room before heading to work. \u201cEveryone on set kept mentioning to me, \u2018The Oscar noms are tomorrow!\u2019 \u2018The Oscar noms are tomorrow!\u2019 And I\u2019m like, \u2018Please stop talking to me about that,\u2019\u201d the 25-year-old recalls to me dryly. No Oscar nod came through for her, though the film received nine overall. She felt that, somehow, it was her fault: \u201cWith SAG and BAFTA, I had no idea the noms were happening, so I didn\u2019t have a chance to jinx myself.\u201d<\/p>\n Top, trousers, belt, Versace.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n A few days later, on set, A\u2019zion and a makeup artist, Kyra Panchenko (who also worked on Marty Supreme<\/em>), joked about being \u201cthe losers of the group,\u201d A\u2019zion tells me. Then, the following morning, they were both nominated for BAFTAs. \u201cShe texted me, \u2018I guess we\u2019re not losers!\u2019\u201d A\u2019zion recalls. After wrapping for the day, a group including Watts, Paulson, and Panchenko popped a bottle of champagne in celebration, which A\u2019zion kept. \u201cI\u2019m going to use hot water to peel the label off and put it on my memory board,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n When we meet on a negative-degree January night at the Four Seasons Hotel Montreal, A\u2019zion is still feeling a mix of excitement and anxiety. \u201cI still feel like I\u2019m pinching myself, and it makes me very emotional,\u201d she says. \u201cI feel so honored to be in the presence of all these incredible creatives, and for them to even think about me in that way, and for people to even think to text me and say, \u2018I\u2019m sorry, you deserved it,\u2019 or \u2018You were snubbed.\u2019 I don\u2019t know how to find the right word. \u2018Grateful\u2019 is not enough, and \u2018honored\u2019 is not enough. It\u2019s like, Josh saw something in me and believed in me and allowed me to be a part of what I feel like is his masterpiece.\u201d<\/p>\n A\u2019zion is wearing a vintage Yankees bomber jacket she bought from eBay over an old bowling shirt with the name \u201cHarry\u201d on it (her grandma told her recently that it\u2019s her great-grandfather\u2019s name), with chunky boots she borrowed from set for the cold. Her signature thick black curls fall just past her shoulders. When we hug, I get a whiff of the scent her friends have been telling her to sell for years, which A\u2019zion tells me is a secret homemade \u201cconcoction of oils,\u201d the main ingredient of which, she reveals, is patchouli. She listens intently, resting her elbow on the bench behind her in the hotel restaurant.<\/p>\n Top, Bottega Veneta. Jeans, Willy Chavarria.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n Clearly, A\u2019zion is no loser. She\u2019s fast becoming one of the most in-demand young actresses working today. Quick-witted, effusive, self-deprecating, and slightly chaotic, she\u2019s a legit funny girl in an industry desperate for a new generation of movie stars. <\/p>\n Between Marty Supreme<\/em> and her role as socialite influencer Tallulah in the HBO series I Love LA<\/em>, about a perpetually unserious friend group navigating love and ambition, the world has been A\u2019zion\u2019s oyster. She\u2019s still getting used to the attention. \u201cI\u2019m uncomfortable, I\u2019m scared. But I\u2019m also so insanely grateful and excited for the future of my career, doing projects that I really care about and want to do,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m excited for hopefully, knock on wood, the potential of having the career and working on the projects I always wanted to work on.\u201d In a sense, she\u2019s learning what it means to have artistic freedom. \u201cI haven\u2019t had the opportunity to have a selection process until now. Now that there\u2019s this opportunity where I can say \u2018No,\u2019 it\u2019s scary,\u201d she says. \u201cI am a major people pleaser. And saying no is so hard, because I don\u2019t want to upset anybody. I don\u2019t want anybody to feel like I don\u2019t fuck with them or their project or their idea.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m uncomfortable, I\u2019m scared. But I\u2019m also so insanely grateful and excited for the future of my career.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/section>\n A\u2019zion first met Josh Safdie over Zoom and was initially passed over for the role of Rachel. At the behest of Marty Supreme<\/em>\u2019s casting director, Jennifer Venditti, Safdie reconsidered. \u201cMeeting over Zoom is incredibly misleading. There\u2019s no vibe. There\u2019s no real feeling,\u201d Safdie wrote in an email. \u201cJen continually told me that I had to meet her in person and I had to see her act. It was her audition tape that blew me away. It was instantly lived in, and the amount of care and preparation that went into it were immediately apparent.\u201d He adds, \u201cOdessa\u2019s capable of expressing a certain punkish vulnerability not only in her performance, but in her essence. It also has a certain fearlessness and individuality that aligns perfectly with the character. That chemistry between herself and her character reveals to audiences an authenticity that maybe they haven\u2019t seen before.\u201d <\/p>\n Peacoat, pants, Dior.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n It helps that A\u2019zion has a perennial morning voice, a deep rasp with a life of its own. This April, fittingly, she\u2019ll voice a character in Netflix\u2019s animated series Stranger Things: Tales From \u201985<\/em>, with a new cast of actors portraying the original crew.<\/p>\n A\u2019zion feels embraced by the industry in a new way now, from crew members to directors and peers. Still, at times she feels like a fish out of water, especially on the red carpet. \u201cIt\u2019s very aggressive. You don\u2019t feel like a person. It\u2019s overwhelming,\u201d she explains. \u201cI\u2019m like, What am I doing here?\u201d She is the rare actress who does not work with a stylist and often does her own glam, too. She notes the dress she wore to the New York premiere of Marty Supreme<\/em> in December: a sparkly black mermaid gown, which A\u2019zion custom-designed with L\u2019Atelier 7474 and Maison Priv\u00e9e. \u201cI was really out of my comfort zone, in general, wearing that dress. But I really wanted to try something, and I had people around me telling me it\u2019s important to wear something that\u2019s memorable, that makes you part of the conversation. And then as soon as I did that, I thought, Maybe it became too<\/em> part of the conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n From the outside, A\u2019zion\u2019s ascent seems to have happened in a flash. But in truth, the Los Angeles native, daughter of actress-writer-producer Pamela Adlon and German director-writer-producer Felix Adlon, has approached acting as both a passion and a real job since her childhood days playing pretend in the mirror. \u201cI always, always, always cared about acting and knew that I wanted to do it,\u201d she says. \u201cI wish I started when I was younger. I would have loved to see little five-year-old me acting in something. Like, what would I have done? How bad would I have been then?\u201d<\/p>\n The push she needed came at the Theater Arts Academy at Champs Charter High School of the Arts in Van Nuys, where she felt overwhelmed by the deluge of monologues she had to do. \u201cI was just so frustrated with myself, with everything,\u201d A\u2019zion remembers. \u201cLike, God, I don\u2019t really want to be in a theater class right now. I really, really, really, really, really just want to go and do the real thing. I want to go and get in a room. I want to audition.\u201d Encouraged by her theater teacher to pursue acting, A\u2019zion left the school and, with help from her performing-arts friend circle, found an agent and manager. <\/p>\n Dress, trousers, Stella McCartney. Choker, Nikita Karizma.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n The first gig she booked, at 16, was a bit role as a destitute teen in five episodes of the country-music series Nashville<\/em> after an in-person audition\u2014\u201cBack when they still did that,\u201d she says\u2014armed with her near-empty r\u00e9sum\u00e9, stapled to the back of her headshot. It was the moment she realized she could trust her instincts. \u201cIt was the first time I went to an audition where I had brought props for the scene. I was wearing what I thought the character would wear,\u201d she says. \u201cI wasn\u2019t just standing there. I was sitting in the chair, standing up in the chair, walking around. I was making choices, and it was scary. I left that audition thinking that it was literally the worst audition I\u2019d ever done in my life. And it was the first job I ever booked.\u201d<\/p>\n Early in her career, she landed a series of archetypal troubled-teen roles, playing a smart-aleck high school dropout on the CBS sitcom Fam<\/em>, starring Nina Dobrev, and a lead on the Euphoria<\/em>-coded 2020 series Grand Army<\/em>. She took dramatic turns as a free-spirited bestie battling brain cancer alongside Yara Shahidi in 2023\u2019s Sitting in Bars with Cake<\/em>, and as a mob daughter in Jennifer Esposito\u2019s indie drama Fresh Kills<\/em> that same year. \u201cI guess I was always playing, like, a runaway or a junkie or someone who\u2019s dying, or something depressing and sad is happening to this person,\u201d she says with a laugh.<\/p>\n The current frenzied phase of her career commenced with the success of Rachel Sennott\u2019s coming-of-age series I Love LA<\/em>, which has been picked up for a second season. Jordan Firstman, her I Love LA<\/em> co-star, first met A\u2019zion during the pandemic when she reached out to him over Instagram and later cold-FaceTimed him. \u201cShe just feels like a loose cannon in the best sense of the word. She has always, always been that way, filled with energy,\u201d he says. \u201cI was like, Oh my God, I love this girl.\u201d The pair reunited when they were cast alongside Sennott, True Whitaker, and Josh Hutcherson. <\/p>\n Jacket, ring, Gucci. Jeans, Willy Chavarria.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Jacket, bloomer, Aknvas. Shoes, Stuart Weitzman X Aknvas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Firstman is quick to amp up A\u2019zion\u2019s work ethic. \u201cThis girl was, like, going out for sitcoms. She was doing one line on whatever CBS show. And she\u2019s been working for 10 years, and now people are calling her an overnight success,\u201d he says. \u201cShe might actually hate me for saying this, but she gives more of a, like, \u2018I moved to LA to make it\u2019 vibe. She gives \u2018I go to acting class.\u2019 She gives \u2018working actor.\u2019 Whereas I feel like a lot of people associated with someone in the industry don\u2019t actually have to take the jobs they don\u2019t want to take, Odessa likes to work. She has that hustler mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n A\u2019zion initially auditioned for I Love LA<\/em> with a self-tape and, as with Marty Supreme<\/em>, was passed over for the role before later getting a callback. Sennott admires A\u2019zion for being \u201cfearless and ballsy as fuck,\u201d she wrote in an email from the writers\u2019 room for Season 2: \u201cOdessa is endlessly curious about her characters. She searches for the reasons they act the way they act and why they do the things they do.\u201d <\/p>\n Tallulah is a one-of-a-kind TV character, whom A\u2019zion describes as \u201csmart and calculated.\u201d A\u2019zion says of the show, \u201cMaybe people related to it because it feels like a satirical real-world LA. And it\u2019s not taking itself too seriously, which we need. It feels like escapism, but you\u2019re trapped in a way.\u201d One of the season\u2019s pivotal episodes involves Tallulah being mortified, feeling her sexual identity has been exploited, when she\u2019s featured in a half-baked Ritz Crackers billboard that pairs a photo of her with the tagline \u201cRitz supports LGBTQ+ storytellers.\u201d When I ask A\u2019zion what this sort of onscreen representation means to her, she says, \u201cI love that Tallulah is queer. I think it\u2019s cool to see one of the leads on the show being a queer woman. She could be fucking a man next season. Or, you know, someone who\u2019s nonbinary. She could be pan. But I think it\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>\n Top, leggings, underwear, Calvin Klein.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n Just like that, gay god herself, Sarah Paulson, materializes in front of us with slicked-back hair. \u201cSorry to interrupt you, but I just want to say \u2018Hey,\u2019\u201d says Paulson. A\u2019zion and I both can\u2019t help yelling out, almost in unison, \u201cOh my God!\u201d They hug, and Paulson utters a cool \u201cI love you.\u201d Later, I approach Paulson\u2019s table and ask what she loves about A\u2019zion. \u201cI\u2019m jealous of her\u2026the way she moves through the world. It\u2019s this kind of \u2018the inside is on the outside\u2019 quality that, I think, is what makes her acting special,\u201d Paulson tells me. \u201cThere\u2019s an instant intimacy with her that\u2019s rare. I think she\u2019s really very alive. And it\u2019s infectious in a good way. Like an infection I want to have.\u201d<\/p>\n Part of A\u2019zion\u2019s no-recipe recipe for acting is relinquishing control. Years ago, she recalls, she auditioned for a part on the Roseanne<\/em> reboot and trained with a comedy coach as prep. The process felt too similar to theater school. \u201cHonestly, for me, I don\u2019t like feeling controlled. I\u2019m not doing something that feels like second nature,\u201d she says. \u201cThere are emotions and parts of yourself that you suppress and ignore. And it feels like built-up frustration. I don\u2019t want to talk about it with my family or my friends. I don\u2019t want to talk about it. So, for me, playing a role like Rachel, that feels like you\u2019re giving yourself the opportunity to have emotional releases.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s an instant intimacy with her that\u2019s rare. And it\u2019s infectious in a good way. Like an infection I want to have.\u201d\u2014Sarah Paulson<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/section>\n Another thing she doesn\u2019t overthink is her style: \u201cSometimes I feel like I really do not dress myself well,\u201d she says. \u201cI walk outside of the house looking insane.\u201d She stands and shows me the huge Led Zeppelin buckle she\u2019s wearing with her jeans. \u201cA big style inspiration always is rock \u2019n\u2019 roll. Rock stars. Janis Joplin. Jimi Hendrix. Lauryn Hill. Pink Floyd. Weezer. Keith Richards,\u201d she says. \u201cI just feel like, Wear whatever you feel works on your body that makes you feel good and feel comfortable.\u201d <\/p>\n Navigating the public side of her job has been more of a tightrope. When we met, she\u2019d recently been cast as the character Zoe Gutierrez in the A24 film adaptation of the novel Deep Cuts<\/em>. Backlash quickly spread over Hollywood\u2019s apparent whitewashing of the character, who is half Mexican and half Jewish in the book. Just hours after we spoke, A\u2019zion posted a statement to her Instagram account, saying she was backing out of the film and felt deeply apologetic. \u201cI\u2019m so sorry 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\u2026and now that I know what I know??? Fuck that. I\u2019m OUT.\u201d Over dinner, A\u2019zion had told me, \u201cIf people knew me personally, the way a lot of OGs do that have been sticking up for me, they\u2019d know what I stand for. I don\u2019t want to make anybody feel any type of way. Like, that\u2019s the last thing I want to do. I don\u2019t want to offend anybody, ever.\u201d (The Last of Us<\/em>\u2019s Ariela Barer was later cast<\/a> in the role, and A\u2019zion congratulated her on Instagram<\/a>.) <\/p>\n Top, trousers, belt, bracelet, Versace.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n The night before our meeting, A\u2019zion tells me she wrote in her journal that she felt \u201cway more respected\u201d on the Montreal set than on many others she\u2019d been on. She pulls out a beige Hobonichi Techo planner and shows off the inside, which is full of grids. Her writing is tiny. \u201cI\u2019ve got a lot of thoughts,\u201d she tells me, caressing it. She\u2019s an avid organizer. (Firstman told me, \u201cI\u2019d call her, and she would be like, \u2018I\u2019m organizing my shed.\u2019 I\u2019m like, you don\u2019t need to be doing this right now. You just organized that shed like, two weeks ago.\u201d) She\u2019s been journaling for the past eight years and jokes that she\u2019d be mortified if her journals ever got stolen. She recently left her journal on the Montreal set and had to sprint back to retrieve it\u2014afterward, she bought a lock.<\/p>\n Self-deprecation has become part of A\u2019zion\u2019s brand and helps keep her relatable. But she\u2019s also working on dialing it back. \u201cBeing self-critical has made me say stupid things that aren\u2019t true,\u201d she admits, citing a Q&A panel for Marty Supreme<\/em>. \u201cThey asked, \u2018What\u2019s your process?\u2019 And I said, \u2018I don\u2019t know, I\u2019m not a real actor.\u2019\u201d Which obviously isn\u2019t true. \u201cI\u2019m learning. I don\u2019t want to be a cocky bastard,\u201d she continues. \u201cBut I would like to shed a little bit of the self-criticism, because I think it would make things a lot easier in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n A\u2019zion is expanding her definition of success while trying to maintain her trademark carefreeness. She\u2019d love to star in a romantic drama like The Notebook<\/em> or Harold and Maude<\/em>\u2014\u201csomething where it feels like, \u2018Oh shit, you and I are in this together,\u2019\u201d she says. Chances are, audiences will follow her wherever she goes. Before we leave, she wants to circle back to a question I had about the difference between a movie star and an actor. \u201cI\u2019m still thinking about it,\u201d she says. \u201cI feel like anybody who has that energy is a movie star.\u201d I ask her if that\u2019s what she aspires to be. \u201cI just aspire to be happy in my decisions,\u201d she says. \u201cAs long as I can say, \u2018Yeah, making this movie was the right decision. I love these people. I love this character and I love the outcome.\u2019 I aspire to look back and think, \u2018Damn, that was a good movie. I\u2019m so happy.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n Hair by Teddy Charles at Nevermind; makeup by Kennedy at Streeters; manicure by Stephanie Stone at Forward Artists; set design by Lauren Machen at Lalaland; produced by GTS Productions.<\/em><\/p>\n A version of this story appears in the March 2026 issue of ELLE.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n![\"odessa](\"https:\/\/hips.hearstapps.com\/hmg-prod\/images\/elm030126wlodessa-010-698e157533050.jpg?resize=980:*\" "\\"odessa")
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