- Odessa A’zion was recently cast as Zoe Gutierrez, a Jewish character with Mexican heritage, in the upcoming film adaptation of Holly Brickley’s Deep Cuts.
- The breakout star, who is Jewish but not Mexican, faced backlash from fans about the inaccurate casting.
- Odessa has since explained she’s pulling out of the film weeks before production begins.
Odessa A’zion might be having a problem that her I Love LA character, Tallulah Stiel, might know a thing or two about. Odessa recently faced backlash after she was inaccurately cast as Zoe Gutierrez, a Jewish and Mexican character, in Sean Durkin and A24’s upcoming film adaptation of Deep Cuts. While Odessa is Jewish, she doesn’t have any Latine heritage—and naturally, longtime fans of the novel expressed their concerns with the casting decision on social media.
The breakout star—who recently starred alongside Timothée Chalamet in Marty Supreme—has seen fans’ frustrations regarding her casting and seems to wholeheartedly agree, as she pulled out of the production all together. In a series of Instagram Stories posted on Wednesday, January 28, Odessa shared, “Guys!! I am with ALL of you and I am NOT doing this movie.”
Across several slides, she thanked fans for bringing the error to her attention and apologized for accepting the role. She then explained how the casting process actually went down, as she originally auditioned for the role of Percy, who plays the love interest of Joe (played by her real-life rumored boyfriend, Drew Starkey).
“It is SO important for me to let you in on how it all went down: I went in for Percy, but was offered Zoe instead and instantly said yes!” Odessa explained. “I’m so pissed y’all, I hadn’t read the book and should have paid more attention to all aspects of Zoe before accepting…and now that I know what I know??? Fuck that! I’M OUT.”
She continued, “I’d never take a role from someone else that’s meant to do it. That SHOULD do it! That’s not me. There are a plentitude of people more than capable of playing this role and I am NOT one of them. I can’t wait to see who it ends up being.”
Her statement comes after facing backlash for accepting the role, with one fan even reaching out to the author of the novel, Holly Brickley, for more clarity on whether Zoe’s Mexican heritage would have been written out to accommodate Odessa.
“Surely it will be rewritten!” the author confirmed, per screenshots of her DM interaction with the fan. “Which happens all the time. For the record in the book Zoe is half Jewish and half Mexican,” she added before clarifying she has “nothing to do with casting.”
Other fans expressed frustrations with Odessa’s casting. “Zoe is supposed to be a poc mexican... very disappointed with the cast, especially since it's mentioned several times in the book,” one fan wrote in response to the news. Another person pointed out the double standard with white male actors who have been cast in similar roles, adding, “I could name a bunch of white male actors y’all #dont do this with.”
Before dropping out, Odessa was going to play Zoe Gutierrez, the best friend of music critic Percy Marks, who will be portrayed by Priscilla’s Cailee Spaeny. According to Variety, Austin Butler and Saoirse Ronan were originally going to play the lead roles of Percy and Joe but had to exit because of scheduling conflicts.
