Grand Army is currently sitting at number four on the Netflix charts, moving up three positions in the last day. This suggests that the teen drama, the latest Netflix show to explore sexual violence in high school, is becoming a word of mouth success, with viewers particularly charmed by the character of Joey and the actor who plays her, Odessa A’Zion.
Though like many teen dramas Grand Army has an ensemble cast, the story at its center is that of Joey, who was also the main character in the play the show is based off of, Katie Capiello’s SLUT.
In the Netflix show, Joey is a popular girl who is expected to become the dance team captain. However, her world is turned upside down after she is the victim of a brutal gang-rape.
The actor who plays Joey has already received critical plaudits for her performance. A Decider reviewer, for example, says of her: “Watching Odessa A’zion grapple with the white water rapid-intense torrent of emotions that Joey goes through is perhaps the main reason to watch Netflix’s Grand Army. A’zion throws down a star-making performance full of confidence, sorrow, and a burning luster.”
Even in fairly negative reviews of the show, the actor is singled out for her performance. An an IndieWire critic, for example, says of her, “an exciting discovery, A’zion imbues Joey with a fiery spirit and emotional vulnerability.”
Until Grand Army, the 21-year-old actor was going by Odessa Adlon, a name viewers may have recognised from her role as Shannon on the short-lived CBS comedy Fam and as homeless girl Liv from Season 5 of Nashville.
One of her first credited roles, however, was in an episode of Better Things—unsurprising, as her mother is Pamela Adlon, who co-created and led the cast of the FX comedy, which is a fictionalized take on raising Odessa and her siblings. Odessa is also the younger sister of Gideon Adlon, recently seen in the canceled Netflix show The Society.
In an Interview Magazine profile, Odessa revealed that she and her sister often found themselves competing for the same roles. She said: “Everybody’s biting their fingernails. We used to be insanely competitive, but it’s gotten better.”
Netflix
Speaking to Nylon about her break-out role, meanwhile, she said: “I know that it’s important to play this type of a character, but at the same time, it is a little bit embarrassing to think about my friends or my family that are going to watch it. I don’t want nobody to watch it; just let it come out, and just let it sit there. But at the same time, I want people to watch it. So that’s why I have super mixed feelings.”
In that same interview, she revealed she never felt comfortable while on Fam: “When I was doing the sitcom, not going to lie, I was like, ‘I don’t want to be here.’ I felt like sitcom acting wasn’t ‘real’ acting, and I wanted to do something real and that people could relate to more… But since it only got one season, it gave me the time to look back and be like, ‘I’m very, very grateful for that.'”
Asked by Bustle how much she thought she had changed since her early roles, the actor and musician said: “I was just more worried when I first started acting. I wanted everyone to be pleased with what I was doing.” Now, she feels much more comfortable advocating for herself on set. “It’s only fair to speak my mind.”
Grand Army is streaming now on Netflix.
