MARTY SUPREME Star Odessa A’zion Covers ELLE’s March 2026 Issue

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Breakout star Odessa A’zion covers the March 2026 issue of ELLE, on newsstands March 3. In an exclusive interview with Clover Hope, A’zion opens up about navigating her first awards season following her performance in Marty Supreme, including earning nominations at BAFTA and The Actor Awards, and embracing artistic agency as she comes into her own in the industry: She’s still getting used to the attention. “I’m uncomfortable, I’m scared. But I’m also so insanely grateful and excited for the future of my career, doing projects that I really care about and want to do,” she says. “I’m excited for hopefully, knock on wood, the potential of having the career and working on the projects I always wanted to work on.”

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On feeling like a loser not getting an Oscar nom and then celebrating her BAFTA nomination: It was the night before this year’s 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. No Oscar nod came through for her, though the film received nine overall. She felt that, somehow, it was her fault: “With SAG and BAFTA, I had no idea the noms were happening, so I didn’t have a chance to jinx myself.” A few days later, on set, A’zion and a makeup artist, Kyra Panchenko (who also worked on Marty Supreme), joked about being “the losers of the group,” A’zion tells me. Then, the following morning, they were both nominated for BAFTAs. “She texted me, ‘I guess we’re not losers!’” A’zion recalls. After wrapping for the day, a group including Watts, Paulson, and Panchenko popped a bottle of champagne in celebration, which A’zion kept. “I’m going to use hot water to peel the label off and put it on my memory board,” she says.

On stepping away from the A24 film adaptation of the novel Deep Cuts following backlash over being cast as Zoe, a character who is half Mexican and Jewish in the book: A’zion posted a statement to her Instagram account, saying she was backing out of the film and felt deeply apologetic. “I’m so sorry this happened.…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??? F**k that. I’m OUT.” Over dinner, A’zion had told me, “If people knew me personally, the way a lot of OGs do that have been sticking up for me, they’d know what I stand for. I don’t want to make anybody feel any type of way. Like, that’s the last thing I want to do. I don’t want to offend anybody, ever.”

On her instinctive approach to acting: “Honestly, for me, I don’t like feeling controlled. I’m not doing something that feels like second nature,” she says. “There are emotions and parts of yourself that you suppress and ignore. And it feels like built-up frustration. I don’t want to talk about it with my family or my friends. I don’t want to talk about it. So, for me, playing a role like Rachel, that feels like you’re giving yourself the opportunity to have emotional releases.”

On being a ‘major people pleaser’ and learning to have artistic freedom: “I haven’t had the opportunity to have a selection process until now. Now that there’s this opportunity where I can say ‘No,’ it’s scary,” she says. “I am a major people pleaser. And saying no is so hard, because I don’t want to upset anybody. I don’t want anybody to feel like I don’t f**k with them or their project or their idea.”

On quieting self-criticism: “Being self-critical has made me say stupid things that aren’t true,” she admits, citing a Q&A panel for Marty Supreme. “They asked, ‘What’s your process?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know, I’m not a real actor.’” Which obviously isn’t true. “I’m learning. I don’t want to be a cocky ba***rd,” she continues. “But 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.”

On her character Tallulah’s sexual identity in I Love LA: “I love that Tallulah is queer. I think it’s cool to see one of the leads on the show being a queer woman. She could be f**king a man next season. Or, you know, someone who’s nonbinary. She could be pan. But I think it’s important.”

On her style inspirations: “Sometimes I feel like I really do not dress myself well,” she says. “I walk outside of the house looking insane.” She’s wearing a belt with a huge Led Zeppelin buckle, and tells me, “A big style inspiration always is rock ’n’ roll. Rock stars. Janis Joplin. Jimi Hendrix. Lauryn Hill. Pink Floyd. Weezer. Keith Richards,” she says. “I just feel like, Wear whatever you feel works on your body that makes you feel good and feel comfortable.”

On designing her own dress with L’Atelier 7474 and Maison Privée for the Marty Supreme premiere: “I 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’s important to wear something that’s memorable, that makes you part of the conversation. And then as soon as I did that, I thought, Maybe it became too part of the conversation.”

On her early passion for acting and wishing she started sooner: “I always, always, always cared about acting and knew that I wanted to do it,” she says. “I 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?”

[Photo Credit:  Carin Backoff for ELLE Magazine]

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