‘Marty Supreme’s Odessa A’zion On Connecting With Timothée Chalamet, The ‘Euphoria’ Audition That Started It All And ‘I Love LA’ Season 2

Odessa A’zion has shot to stardom in mere minutes — or so it seems. Just a few weeks ago, she appeared in Rachel Sennott’s new comedy seriesI Love LAwhich has already been renewed for a second season. And now, the world is about to see her opposite Timothée Chalamet in Josh Safdie‘s much-anticipated A24 film Marty Supreme.

So, where did she come from? When we meet via Zoom, A’zion addresses this right away, saying, “It’s really funny, because I’m seeing a lot of these things online of people being like, ‘Odessa A’zion just came out of nowhere and she’s an industry plant.’ And I’m like, ‘I’ve been acting for 10 years now.’”

Very early roles included an episode of her mom Pamela Adlon’s show Better Thingsand in the past few years, A’zion has been in the Dakota Johnson-starrer Am I OK?the comedy series Ghostsand this year the films Pools and Until Dawn. It was this last she was shooting in Budapest when she found an old phone booth and used it to record a self-tape audition for Marty Supreme — a scene in which her character, Rachel Mizler, is in a 1950s-era phone booth negotiating with the owner of a dog Marty is holding for ransom (yes, you read that correctly).

Rachel is crazy in love with Chalamet’s Marty Mauser — a ping pong king and hustler extraordinaire, loosely based on a real person named Marty Reisman. Ultimately, both Rachel and Marty will reveal a level of determination that leans towards the twisted. Here, A’zion reveals how she persevered through a long period of not booking anything, how a long-ago Euphoria audition led to the role of Rachel and how her acting style blended with Chalamet’s approach.

DEADLINE: Last time we met it was at a panel onstage at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival and we talked about I Love LA.

I think that was my first ever [on-stage Q&A]. That’s not true. I had done it once before, for Poolsbut that felt like my first ever panel in front of a big audience like that.

DEADLINE: Since then, you’ve been doing a lot of interviews. The last few months must have been very intense in the run-up to the Marty Supreme premiere. How are you coping with it?

It has definitely been crazy. It’s definitely a new thing I’d never experienced before. How am I coping with it? I’m learning the ways. I’m trying to get past anxieties of talking to big groups of people. That’s scary. I have stage fright, so that’s really hard. Which I know maybe just goes away with experience of getting on stage more, but I never wanted to get on stage in front of people because it’s scary as hell. But I’m just excited that people are getting to see the show and the movie and projects that I care so deeply about. So if that means me having to do that, then I’m happy to be a part of it.

DEADLINE: Tell me about the process of getting the role of Rachel in Marty Supreme? I know that you sent in some self-tapes you made in a Hungarian phone booth.

I feel like for me personally, and when I first started acting and doing my own thing, I feel like I didn’t book anything for a really long time, I don’t know. It took a really long time for me to book something. And it really didn’t happen until I started making my tapes my own and dressing as the character, what I thought the character would look like, versus people telling me, “Just wear neutral colors, go with a blank background.” And when I first started, it was in person too anyway, so it was whatever background they had. But self-tapes, I feel like are so special because you really have an opportunity to make it your own and make it as realistic as you want to make it. And if I didn’t find a phone booth, I was going to find a way to find a phone booth.

I sent the tape a sh-t-ton of times, a bunch of different tapes over the course of a couple days. And I memorized that faster than I’ve ever memorized anything in my life.

DEADLINE: Because the audition was the scene where Rachel’s in the phone booth in the movie…

Yeah. Which I think is way worse in the movie than my audition was. But yeah, it was a tape that had come about. I had met with Josh beforehand and Jennifer [Venditti, casting director] remembered me from my audition for Euphoria years ago and thought that I was right for this role, and was trying to tell Josh that she felt that she found his Rachel. And at first, when I met with him, he thought I was maybe too young and it didn’t go my way. And then a couple months later, it came back around and I was able to send the tape. I sent an improv portion, I sent an interview portion. And I mean, I sent the tape a sh-t-ton of times, a bunch of different tapes over the course of a couple days. And I memorized that faster than I’ve ever memorized anything in my life because I never will do a tape not memorized, like holding the paper. I feel it’s so important to show that you really took time and care about it. But yeah, after that, Jen and Josh Fac-Timed me. Josh was showing me around the stadium because the movie used to have a different ending and they were scouting for the stadium for the ending. And he was like, “This is where we’re going to shoot this. And this is where we shoot this. And this is Jack Fisk, he’s doing the set design.” I’m [thinking]what the f–k is going on? Did I get the part or are you just like, dangling it? And then he told me that I got the part. It was so crazy.

DEADLINE: Did you have the full script? Did you know about the different ending at the time?

I had the script with the original ending before it was changed a couple different times, and then a couple things just had to be cut timing-wise in the movie because otherwise it would’ve been an even longer movie. I feel like they got it to a really good time.

DEADLINE: Did you do chemistry reads with Timothée before you got the role? Obviously your characters have this intense connection.

No, no. Nothing. Personally, I feel like Josh, I think he’s got a really good read on actors — a really, really good read. And I think he could just tell if someone will work with someone else beforehand. I think if he has an intuition on someone or something, he’s going to go with it, no matter what. Even if maybe they don’t have chemistry in person or something, I think he can see his vision.

DEADLINE: So, then what was your first interaction with Timothée? Did you just go right into shooting?

Josh thought that it would be a good idea to have us go and have breakfast together somewhere. Or maybe it was dinner. Me, Josh, and Timmy at this little diner in New York. And so, we just hung there for a little bit, and all talked before we started things. I was so excited to start that movie. That movie just is so special for so many reasons. I was kind of feeling at a time where I know I want to do acting with my life… I was just talking to my agent and friend a couple days before I got the tape and I’m like, “Dude, I love working. I love doing these horror movies and I love doing these Indies.” But I’m just like, “I don’t know if I’m going to ever have a career more than this.” And then… This is the first time I’m in something of this scale and this character. I’ve been thinking about that so much. I feel so lucky that I was able to be a part of it. And I feel like Rachel came at such an important time in my life too, just mentally, because I felt like she came when I really needed her. I don’t know, not to get emotional… It was just a hard, hard year, a lot of loss, a lot of people lost and you can’t do anything about that. Once people are gone, they’re gone. So this whole thing felt really, really special and kismet and from the angels, kind of. She’s just such a special character to me.

DEADLINE: What do you think of Rachel? She’s scrappy. She’ll do what it takes to get out of a situation.

She, in a way, feels like a mixture of inner child and chaos and freedom, while also being really, really strong, secure adult. She’s so confident in what she wants and what she believes she deserves for herself. I wish I had that confidence and to defend yourself and stand up for yourself. And I just think she’s just a really layered, really beautiful strong, character… I just think she’s so stuck in this world. I mean, you look at 1952 and her situation and her husband and being pregnant with the other guy’s baby, but she really wants to be with the other guy, because they’ve loved each other their whole lives. And she’s just so stuck. She’s just restrained by this societal pressure to settle down and get married and do it fast, when she knew that she wanted to be with this other person. And so she takes it into her own hands. She says, “OK, if he doesn’t want to be with me this way, I’m going to show him.” I really, really admire her.

I’m going to go home and watch Hitchcock because I know that those are the movies that were going around at that time. And I’m going to chop my hair off for the role and strip the color out to make her feel younger.

DEADLINE: I interviewed Timmy for A Complete Unknown last year, and one of the things we talked about was how much he immersed himself in this role for Marty Supreme. Tell me about your impressions of working with him, the way he works, and the way your styles fit together as actors.

So, I think in ways we’re very similar and in ways we’re very different. We’re very similar in ways of we just want it to be as authentic as it possibly can be, which means for me, less rehearsal. Let’s just go in and do it and feel it out and feel what comes. And if there’s something that one of us is stuck on, let’s talk about it. We can easily talk about it. There’s not one of us saying, “I don’t want to talk about it.” It’s fully open, flowy. If one of us feels stuck, we’re there.

But then [we’re] different in the other sense of he really immerses himself in the character in that way — I don’t really know because I haven’t really talked to him about it, so I cannot speak on his behalf, but from what I’ve witnessed. Versus for me, I immerse myself in the character in just a different way where I’m going to go home and watch Hitchcock because I know that those are the movies that were going around at that time. And I’m going to chop my hair off for the role and strip the color out to make her feel younger. Josh liked my natural color better, and I’m going to make my hair super frizzy so that I’m extra Jewish for the role because that’s what that character was. And I’m going to put the weights on my belly so that I could really feel like I’m pregnant. I’m going to make the playlists so that I have the Rachel playlist of what I think that she was listening to then. And then just a playlist of what I feel about Rachel and Marty’s love. So, I immerse myself in a different way than Timmy immerses himself. I think he needs to be locked into the character in just a different way, but we work with each other really, really well. And I loved working with him and he’s just so incredible. He’s such an amazing actor.

DEADLINE: Do you feel ready for everyone to see the film when it premieres in a couple days?

I don’t know. I’m a little scared. I’m really, really excited for people to see the movie. I’m really excited for people to see the movie because it’s just such an incredible movie, and these filmmakers, they really have a vision. And I’m so grateful to have been a part in it, in even the tiniest way. It happened really fast. I feel like we just finished filming and boom, now it’s coming out.

DEADLINE: And what are you most excited about making Season 2 of I Love LA?

I’m just excited to go back with all the cast. And the character’s very different for me. We talk different, we walk different. I feel like we look a little different. So that’s always really weird for me, but it’s really fun to do with the cast and to be able to shoot at home because I’m from LA, I live in LA. It’s the best. I’m super excited to go back.

Marty Supreme is in theaters from December 25th.