Odessa A’zion has been at the center of fierce social media discourse for the past few days, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to die down anytime soon — even after she issued a passionate response.
In case you missed it, earlier this week, it was announced that 25-year-old Odessa, who is white, had been cast in Sean Durkin’s movie adaptation of the novel Deep Cuts, where she would play a character named Zoe Gutierrez, who is Mexican.
This casting decision sparked immediate backlash, with Odessa being heavily criticized for whitewashing the character, as well as for taking a role away from a Latina actor. In addition, the timing of this decision amid the current political climate across the United States did not go unchecked, with one viral tweet reading: “Casting a white woman to play a Mexican tole at a time when Latinos in this country are afraid to leave their houses for fear of their government kidnapping them is so gross.”
“and i can tell you right now there are thousands of beautiful, talented and passionate mexican actors out there waiting for their big break…to see a white woman steal that opportunity in the current political climate is not only disgusting but also disheartening,” another tweeted.
“This makes me think of Danny Ramirez’s tweets a few years back about losing a Latino role to a white actor whose casting resulted in rewrites to the character’s ethnicity. It’s infuriating how much of Hollywood sees us as disposable,” somebody else added.
One more wrote: “melissa barrera was right fucking there. a MEXICAN actress for a MEXICAN role. but yeah sure let’s just rewrite her to be white for a white actress!”
“Melissa Barrera and Eiza Gonzalez are two actress who were both born and raised in Mexico. Both have name recognition in their respective genres and both could’ve used the opportunity to play a MEXICAN woman in this film over white girl Odessa A’Zion,” another echoed.
And on that note, others remembered quotes from Latina actors about how hard it can be to book roles, including Alexa Demie, who shot to fame playing Maddy in Euphoria, and said on the A24 Podcast in 2020: “I wasn’t booking anything ever. It was really hard, especially because I feel like a lot of the lead roles I would go out for would go to a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl. Even for Maddy, I think some people saw her as that… You never see mixed or Latin girl as a lead.”
Reposting Alexa’s quote, an incredibly popular tweet reads: “Odessa should not have auditioned for and/or accepted that role for Deep Cuts. I have no idea what the movie even is or the book, but if the book’s character was latina, that shouldn’t be erased. I’m tired of this ‘don’t blame the actor’ BS when some of them are plenty aware.”
Melissa Barrera also issued an impassioned Instagram statement about representation in Hollywood amid the growing discourse. She wrote, in part: “For the longest time the only people that had the access or were given opportunities to create were white people. And so white creators would write stories about white characters (with MAYBE some POC side characters) Makes sense, and no shade to that: people should write about their own experiences. (Also I love white people, some of y’all are really cool.) But yes shade because, unfortunately that meant that POC were shut out of the industry.”
“FOR THE LONGEST TIME even the POC side characters in white stories were played by white actors because white actors would be the ones with access (and because racism). And therefore they were the ones that became working actors, and that became the norm,” Melissa went on, later explaining: “POCs get, let’s say there are ten lanes, they get ONE, to share, amongst all POCs. Why???? Idk man…. Anyway That’s how the system is designed. That’s what we are allocated. And NO, it’s not in any way proportional to the population, or ticket sales, or any other counter argument you may have.”
“So in 2026 if there are 1000 roles out there for actors. And 50 of those are written for Latinos. LATINOS should play them. There SHOULD be more. No doubt. But there aren’t. And until there are and we don’t have to have this conversation. Give Latinos the Latino roles!” she concluded.
And finally, on Wednesday night, Odessa herself responded, issuing an Instagram statement of her own as she announced that she will be dropping out of the project. She also explained that she had originally auditioned for a different character.
“Guys!! I am with ALL of you and I am NOT doing this movie,” she began. “fuck that. I’m OUT. lemme make myself clear… THANK YOU guys for bringing this to my attention. I AGREE WITH EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU! This is why I love you guys.”
“I am so so sorry that this happened. 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 went on. “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! IM OUT.”
“I’d never take a role from someone else that’s meant to do it. That SHOULD do it! That’s not me,” she added. “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.”
“I was so excited I just said hell yeah cause I knew how much I loved the story so I was just down to be a part of it, and so excited to work with this group of people! But fuck thatttttttttt y’all never again!” Odessa continued. “Ive been so busy with other work I was trying to carve out a time to read, I wish I found that time sooner and clocked her name. That’s all that’s mentioned in the script when I just finally did. Thank you thank you THANK YOU GUYS FOR LETTING ME KNOW!!!”
“Still haven’t read the book but the story in the script is focused on Percy and Joe, so of course on my initial read that was my main focus as well,” she explained. “I was happy to be involved as a different role, but I just can not do it knowing more about Zoe now.”
And through all of this, people can’t help but compare the situation to Jacob Elordi’s divisive casting in Emerald Fennell’s upcoming adaptation of Wuthering Heights. If you missed the drama, the internet was left outraged when Jacob, who is white, was cast as Heathcliff, who is repeatedly described as “dark-skinned” in Emily Brontë’s original novel.
One person wrote: “I wish filmtwt treated Jacob Elordi the same way they did Odessa, he deserves all the lashings too,” while another pointed out: “Jacob Elordi had plenty of time to respond to Wuthering Heights backlash the same way Odessa A’zion handled the Deep Cuts situation. He didn’t.”
“Jacob Elordi can still function and have his career after taking that race swapped wuthering heights role in this modern age but Odessa can’t after she’s dropped out and apologized ???” somebody else said in response to those who are still criticizing Odessa after her statement.
While one more concluded: “thinking about how the backlash for wuthering heights was mostly directed at emerald and no one really attacked jacob significally to the point he had to address it while odessa is more attacked than the director who casted her…all should be called out equally.”
What do you make of the whole situation? Let me know in the comments below!
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