ZOLA, A STRIPPER ROAD TRIP
Riley Keough + Taylour Paige Go Wild
Films are regularly adapted from books, plays, tv shows. But in a rather meta-moment, the film trailer that took Twitter by storm last week was based on a 2015 Twitter thread.
The A24 produced Zola is based on the viral 148-tweet thread by Aziah “Zola” King that starts with a sentence that should enter the cannon of classic literary openers alongside Camus’ “Mother died today,” Melville’s “Call me Ishmael,” and Nabokov “Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins.”
“Y’all wanna hear a story about how me and this bitch fell out? It’s kind of long, but it’s full of suspense.” ~ @_zolarmoon, October 27, 2015.
The trailer simultaneously whipped up a rush of nostalgia for what feels like a long-gone era of Twitter, and a debate about the “blaccent” of actress Riley Keough, who portrays the unpredictable Stefani (nee “Jessica” in the original Twitter thread).
This is not the first time that Keough has done a notable character voice. The actress (who is Elvis Presley’s granddaughter) is known for American Honey, The Lodge, and the Steven Soderbergh produced The Girlfriend Experience TV anthology.
The film’s titular Zola is actress and dancer Taylour Paige. She portrayed Dussie Mae in last year’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and danced in High School Musical 3, and the music video for Usher’s She Came to Give It to You, featuring Nicki Minaj.
The rest of the Twitter characters include Nicholas Braun (Greg Hirsch of HBO’s Succession) as Derrek, Ari’el Stachel (a Tony Award winner for Broadway musical The Band’s Visit) as Sean, Colman Domingo (TV’s Euphoria, and Fear the Walking Dead) as X, and Jason Mitchell (best known for playing Eazy-E in 2015’s N.W.A biopic Straight Outta Compton) as Dion.
Director Janicza Bravo (behind the Juneteenth episode of Atlanta, and the feature film Lemon) co-wrote the script with Slave Play playwright Jeremy O. Harris.
Back in 2016, it had previously been announced that James Franco would direct a film adaption of the viral story, but pre-production fell through when he faced sexual misconduct allegations.
Zola premiered back in January at the Sundance Film Festival. It was produced by A24 and will be released theatrically on June 30, 2021.
