The Future Face of a Generation

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HILLARY BUSIS,
SENIOR HOLLYWOOD EDITOR

For the longest time, Rachel Sennott’s highly anticipated upcoming HBO comedy was known only as the “Untitled Rachel Sennott Comedy Series.” These days, the project’s title is finally public—it’s called I Love LA; tell your friends!—but reactions to it are still embargoed until October 30. So I’ll just say this: You should pay attention to Odessa A’zion, who stars this fall in that series as well as Marty Supreme, the second sports biopic this year directed by a Safdie brother. (Benny did The Smashing Machine; Josh did Marty, which is led by Timothée Chalamet and Gwyneth Paltrow.) Savannah Walsh spoke with A’zion right before her two-pronged big break for VF’s November issue, covering everything from A’zion’s discomfort doing press—“God, interviews are so weird,” she said to Walsh at one point—to her decision to drop her given last name (A’zion’s mother is writer, comedian, and actor Pamela Adlon). As A’zion told Walsh, “It was important to me to…It’s just my name now. It’s my own name.”

The Future Face of a Generation

BY SAVANNAH WALSH

Odessa A’zion has graduated from playing troubled teens on short-lived series like Netflix’s Grand Army and the CBS sitcom Fam to It-girl-in-waiting status. This fall she’ll become the face of a generation in two titles: I Love LA, a comedy series from Rachel Sennott that will air Sunday nights on HBO, and Josh Safdie’s A24 sports drama Marty Supreme, starring Timothée Chalamet as the titular table tennis champion.

“She’s got a Fievel Mouse-kewitz quality,” says Safdie, comparing the actor to the adorable hero of the 1986 animated film An American Tail. “She feels independent, but also dead set on finding a way home.”

VF’s Savannah Walsh speaks with A’zion ahead of the biggest fall of her career. It’s an overwhelming moment—but one the actor has been building toward since childhood.