Tribeca 2022: Odessa A’Zion Talks Good Girl Jane, Grand Army, and What She’s Learned On Horror Movie Sets

With roles in television, horror films, and indie darlings, Odessa A’Zion is booked and busy. I spoke with the actress at Tribeca Festival 2022 to discuss her newest project Good Girl Jane and what’s next for her.

A’Zion returns to Tribeca with Good Girl Jane about a young woman dealing with loneliness and hopelessness who gets caught up on a romance with a drug dealer. “Each character is going through their own thing, but you see them through the eyes of Jane [played by Rain Spencer] who is brought into their [friend] circle and finally feels included in something for the first time in her life,” she shared with me, “and drugs [are] a part of that sometimes.”

She opened up about the experience of working with a director Sarah Elizabeth Mintz who allowed a lot of freedom for improv. “That was really cool because it's very rare that a director lets you do improv like that and it's also rare that you have cast members that can really get down with you,” she said.

While Good Girl Jane tackles difficult subject matter, A’Zion isn’t a stranger to that space, making waves with her role as Joey in Grand Army. “That one was hard for me to watch. I couldn’t watch that one. I didn’t even want to tell anyone to watch that because it was very intense,” she said about her experience on the Netflix show.

Up next, A’Zion is headed into the horror space with both big budget and indie horror films like The Inhabitant and a Hellraiser reboot. “I’m kind of tired of being covered in blood for a little white,” she joked. “I think I’m good.”

The biggest lessons she learned working on horror movies? “It’s going to look different on the screen than what it does in real life. There’s stuff like blood pumps and […] so much going on, but you got to trust the process,” she shared. “Another thing I learned is I hate fake blood and blood continuity is a pain in the ass.”

She explained more about the effects in horror films. “I did two indie horrors and the prosthetics for the indies honestly looked so bad in real life. I was like, ‘This is going to be terrible.’ I haven't seen it yet. I love all the guys that did that movie so got faith in them, but I know that they only use like a second of the prosthetics,” she laughed. “The other one, the prosthetics on that one were like crazy. It's very practical. They're going to go in with some VFX after.”

A’Zion isn’t the only working actor in her family, coming from the Adlon family of actors, directors, and writers. “Maybe I’ll work with my sister one day. That would be cool. We’ve talked about it. We have very different styles as people, so I’m interested to see what it would be like to work with each other,” she said of her sister Gideon Adlon, known for Blockers, The Craft: Legacy, and The Society, but don’t expect it anytime soon. “I'd like to like stay in my own lane because it's weird if your family's acting— Yeah, I like to stay separate, but you never know.”

Good Girl Jane won Best Narrative Film at the Tribeca Festival, as well as Best Performance for star Rain Spencer.