Odessa A’zion arrived at the Trophée Chopard ceremony in a Dior suit, plucked from Jonathan Anderson’s men’s collection, expecting what she thought might be “a small little ceremony with six people at the table.”
Instead, the evening unfolded into one of the festival’s marquee celebrations, complete with a packed room.
“It was gnarly,” A’zion said of receiving the annual emerging talent prize alongside Connor Swindells. “It was nuts.”
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Still, the actress said the joint nature of the honor made the experience feel more grounding. “It was really, really nice to not go through it alone,” she said. “I thought it was really special that it was for two people instead of just one, and it felt like a shared experience with Connor.”
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A’zion, whose recent projects include “I Love L.A.” and the upcoming “Mother Courage,” took inspiration from the event’s godmother, Isabelle Huppert. “I was just trying to sponge everything that she was saying.”
One comment in particular stayed with her.
“She said that she hopes that we’re not ‘successful,’ but that we have freedom in our careers,” A’zion said, of the creative instead of commercial focus of her advice.
For the young actress, that idea of freedom extends beyond the kinds of films and television projects she wants to pursue. It also informs the way she dresses and styles herself.
“I feel like the clothes that you wear is an expression of yourself,” she said. “It’s kind of the only time that we have — at least in this industry — to do that, because when people see actors, most of the time they’re seeing them in films or shows where they’re not themselves.”
That thinking is partly why A’zion has continued styling herself rather than working with a traditional stylist. “I just don’t want to have anyone tell me what to wear in my life,” she said.
Fashion, for A’zion, is less tied to trends than to her instinct to experiment. Rather than purchasing runway looks outright, she said she often borrows archival or vintage pieces through friends and fashion contacts. She digs through vintage stores, adding that many of the clothes she wears are rented or lent to her temporarily.
She also gravitates toward tailoring over more traditionally feminine silhouettes. “I really, really, really, really try to not wear dresses or skirts,” she said. “They make me super uncomfortable.”
(While she did wear a dress to the Kering “Women in Motion” dinner during Cannes, she paired it with some beat-up Frye boots.)
Her aversion to dresses changed slightly after filming “I Love LA,” she said, crediting the experience with pushing her outside her comfort zone stylistically. The actress is set to return to the series for its second season that will start shooting in July, and said the collaborative atmosphere of the production and its cast is inspiring.
“It feels really cool to be in a cast of such creatives,” she said, praising creator and star Rachel Sennott for balancing multiple roles on the project. “She wrote the show, she directed an episode, she’s leading it, she’s a producer on it, she’s the showrunner. It’s really amazing what she’s doing.”
A’zion described the cast dynamic as unusually supportive and creatively fluid. “We all get along very well, and love each other very much, and support each other,” she said. “The group chat’s still going strong.”
The set of “Mother Courage,” which she wrapped earlier this year costarring Naomi Watts, Diane Lane and Sarah Pidgeon, was much the same, she said.
“Oh my god, are you kidding me?” she said of working with the cast. “I’ve looked up to the three of those women for so long.”
She has a long-term interest in direction, but for now the actress said she is hoping to find some time away from filming to reconnect with some of the artistic pursuits that have taken a backseat amid her increasingly busy schedule, and there are many other creative paths she hopes to explore, including fashion design.
“There’s definitely a lot of things that I’m interested in and want to do in my life,” she said. “I would love to do them one day.”