Odessa A’zion exits A24 film over casting controversy: ‘I’m OUT’
Odessa A’zion attends the 83rd annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton on Jan. 11, 2026, in Beverly Hills, California. (Frazer Harrison/WireImage via Getty Images)
Odessa A’zion has exited an upcoming A24 film due to controversy over her casting.
The actress, who has had recent breakout performances in Marty Supreme and I Love LA, had been cast in the upcoming Sean Durkin film Deep Cut. The movie, which stars Cailee Spaeny and Drew Starkey, is based on Holly Brickley‘s 2025 novel.
A’zion was set to play a supporting character named Zoe Gutierrez who is of Mexican and Jewish descent. While A’zion is Jewish, she does not have any Mexican heritage. This led to pushback over her casting on social media.
The actress took to Instagram on Wednesday to explain that she would be departing the film. A’zion said in a series of posts that she initially auditioned for a different role and was offered to play Zoe instead. She had not read the novel or script fully, and accepted before knowing the character’s entire story.
“Guys!! I am with ALL of you and I am NOT doing this movie. F*** that. I’m OUT,” A’zion wrote. “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’m so so sorry that this happened. It is SO important for me to let you in on how it all went down.”
A’zion then described how she got the role of Zoe.
“I went in for Percy, but was offered Zoe instead and instantly said yes! I’m so p***** 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*** that! IM OUT,” A’zion wrote.
She continued, saying she “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 f*** thattttttt y’all never again!”
A24 told ABC Audio it had no comment on A’zion’s departure from the film.
Eric Dane attends the Los Angeles Premiere of Columbia Pictures’ ‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’ at TCL Chinese Theatre on May 30, 2024 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)
Actor Eric Dane, best known for his starring role in the long-running ABC medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, has died at 53.
Dane revealed in April 2025 that he’d been battling the incurable degenerative neurological disorder amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.
“My left side is functioning; my right side has completely stopped working,” Dane told ABC’s Diane Sawyer in June 2025, adding that he was rapidly losing voluntary function in his left arm: “I feel like maybe a couple, few more months and I won’t have my left hand either.”
Born on Nov. 9, 1972, in San Francisco, California, Dane caught the acting bug in high school and made his television debut in a 1991 episode of Saved by the Bell. More roles followed in shows including The Wonder Years, Roseanne, Married… with Children and others. Dane’s profile rose when he was cast in the recurring role of Jason Dean for two seasons of the long-running hit supernatural series Charmed.
But Dane’s breakout role was that of plastic surgeon Dr. Mark Sloan in the ABC medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, which he played for eight seasons beginning in 2006. His character – referred to on the show by female characters as “McSteamy,” because of his good looks – made him a star.
In a 2025 interview with Diane Sawyer, Dane recalled one of his most memorable McSteamy scenes, early on his run on the show, in which he emerged from a steam-filled bathroom, barely clad in a towel. That moment, one of Grey’s Anatomy‘s most talked-about, cemented Dane’s status as a prime time TV heartthrob – yet he had no idea then of the lasting impact it would have.
“In the moment, it was just another scene to me,” he said. “I just remember walking out of a bathroom where a very nice gentleman was kind of blowing smoke towards me.”
Following his character’s departure from the show in 2012, Dane starred as Cmdr. Tom Chandler, the commanding officer of a U.S. Navy destroyer during a deadly global pandemic, in the TNT action drama The Last Ship. Dane played the role for the show’s five-season run, which ended in 2018. The following year, he was cast in the hit HBO drama Euphoria as Cal Jacobs, the closeted father of actor Jacob Elordi’s character, Nate.
Most recently, Dane starred in the 2025 Amazon Prime crime drama Countdown.
In addition to the television work for which he was best known, Dane also enjoyed a film career, with roles in movies including X-Men: The Last Stand, Marley & Me, Burlesque, Dangerous Waters and 2024’s Bad Boys: Ride or Die.
In November 2025, Dane, the progression of his disease apparent, made a guest appearance on the TV drama Brilliant Minds, playing a firefighter with ALS who kept his diagnosis from his family.
Despite his ALS diagnosis, Dane told Diane Sawyer in 2025 that he was “very hopeful” about his future.
“I don’t think this is the end of my story,” he said. “And whether it is or it isn’t, I’m gonna carry that idea with me.”
Dane is survived by two daughters, whom he shares with the actress Rebecca Gayheart.
Gayheart and Dane married in October 2004. Gayheart filed for divorce in 2018 but later requested to dismiss that petition in March 2025, a month before Dane went public with his ALS diagnosis.
In a December 2025 essay for The Cut, Gayheart wrote that she and Dane never got a divorce, describing their relationship as a “familial love.”
“It’s a very complicated relationship, one that’s confusing for people. Our love may not be romantic, but it’s a familial love,” she wrote. “Eric knows that I am always going to want the best for him. That I’m going to do my best to do right by him. And I know he would do the same for me.”
She continued, “So whatever I can do or however I can show up to make this journey better for him or easier for him, I want to do that. And I want to model that for my girls: That’s what you do. That’s the right thing to do.”
Idris Elba in ‘Hijack’ season 2 (Courtesy of Apple)
Idris Elba returns as professional negotiator Sam Nelson in Hijack season 2, premiering Wednesday on Apple TV. After preventing Flight KA29 from crashing and guiding it to a safe landing in London, Sam once again finds himself in a hostage situation — this time in Berlin on a crowded subway train.
Speaking at a press conference, director Jim Field Smith said the shift from a plane to a train was his way of starting fresh without repeating what happened in the first season.
“We wanted to explore the character through an even more challenging lens,” Field Smith said. “So we immediately started thinking of what can we do to Sam, where can we put Sam that will push him even further.”
The new setting, he said, thrusts Sam into a “physical and moral maze underground” where he’s forced to “make pretty tough decisions at every turn.”
Elba said season 2 answers questions that lingered after the plane landed in season 1. “Who, why, what, when — and what happened to Sam after?” he said, adding those questions “became part of the development of what our character could possibly go through next.”
As for why Berlin was the chosen for season 2, Field Smith listed several reasons, including his deep affection for the city, its history of resilience and secrets, and the years he lived there. He also highlighted Germany’s approach to security, along with the abandoned and “ghost” subway stations in the city, which he said “opened up a whole world of possibility.”
Most importantly, Field Smith wanted Sam somewhere where he “could physically and emotionally get lost.”
“I wanted Sam to be out of his depth and to not speak the language, not have any friends around him, not be able to contact anyone,” he said. “Dramatically, it just puts him in a much more compromised position.”
Asked for Elba’s reason for the location choice, he joked, “The subway cars are yellow.”
