Stories, pictures, videos, and tweets go viral all the time, but few end up being turned into award-winning movies that blur the line between comedy and drama. And even fewer pull off what was achieved in the 2021 A24 movie, Zola, a film that follows a young exotic dancer as she embarks on a road trip that will forever change her life, but only if it doesn’t kill her first.
As part of our ongoing partnership with Plex, where you can watch Zola streaming for free in May, as well as other A24 films like Moonlight (starting May 21), The Green Knight, and After Yang, we have put together a list of some of the most interesting behind-the-scenes facts about how the viral tweet thread known as #TheStory became one of the most riveting, stylistic, and at times, terrifying Black comedies in recent memory.
In October 2015, Aziah ‘Zola’ King Posted A 148-Tweet Thread That Would Eventually Become The A24 Movie
Before becoming one of the best under-the-radar 2021 movies, Zola started out as an October 2015 Twitter thread that took the internet and world by storm with its 148–part epic about Aziah “Zola” King and her extraordinary and incredibly dangerous road trip that took her from Detroit, Michigan, to Tampa, Florida, changing everything she knew about friendship, life, and herself in the process.
The viral thread was quickly spread by countless Twitter users in subsequent hours, days, and weeks, and eventually led to Rolling Stone Magazine publishing an extensive interview with King where those who somehow missed the first wave of the drama were exposed to the unforgettable and unfathomable story. David Kushner’s article, titled “Zola Tells All: The Real Story Behind the Greatest Stripper Saga Ever Tweeted,” went into all kinds of details about #TheStory and what came in its fallout. But this was just the beginning…
James Franco Was Originally Slated To Adapt The Twitter Saga Into A Movie
Not even a full four months after Aziah “Zola” King and her viral Twitter thread became the stuff of internet legend, #TheStory was well on its way to becoming what would eventually be called Zola, a Hollywood film based on the saga. In February 2016, Variety reported that James Franco’s Rabbit Bandini Productions company was in the process of developing a movie based on David Kushner’s Rolling Stone article that would see the Pineapple Express star direct from a script by Andrew Neel and Mike Roberts.
Though the project initially had a lot of momentum out the gate, Zola languished in development hell for the next two years after Franco stepped down as director, and then again later in early 2018 when the actor faced a series of sexual misconduct allegations. In January 2018, just one month before the movie was set to start shooting, The Hollywood Reporter quoted an A24 spokesperson who said Zola was “in development” without any additional details.
Taylour Paige Was Hesitant To Audition For The Original Version Of Zola
Taylour Paige, who would go on to become the star of Zola with her portrayal of Aziah "Zola" King, was initially hesitant to audition for the original version of the movie, telling Variety that she thought the script was “really racist and sexist.” Paige would “begrudgingly” put herself on tape but thought nothing of it until she later auditioned for Hustlers. And that’s where everything changed:
I found out it had a new writer and director and asked to read it. And I was like, ‘Oh yes, this is that collective Black voice that I know.’ It was all there. So I went on tape again.
After her second audition, Paige reached out to the real Zola on Instagram, who offered words of encouragement before saying that she had a dream the actress would play her in the movie.
Janicza Bravo Went Through An Extensive Process To Replace James Franco In 2017
In 2017, shortly after learning that James Franco would be stepping down as the director (but still remaining on as a producer at the time), Janicza Bravo was determined to direct Zola. When speaking with The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the film’s June 2021 theatrical release, Bravo walked the outlet through the process she went through to helm the project.
Bravo would beat out multiple directors for the gig, go through three months’ worth of meetings with the film’s producers, and lay out her master plan for Zola. This included providing the producers with lighting schemes, color palettes, costume and visual references, ideas for casting. Ultimately, it worked, and Bravo was later named the director, but only after an extensive delay by A24
Janicza Bravo And Jeremy O. Harris Co-Wrote Zola Through Emails, Text And Instagram
When Janicza Bravo took over as director in 2017, she took a pass at the Zola screenplay and opted to make various changes, which were pulled off with the help of close friend Jere O. Harris. But with the pair being on opposite sides of the country, they had to treat the collaborative process like they were “long-distance lovers,” forcing them to find different ways to stay in contact and rewrite the script, as Bravo told Vanity Fair:
We were like long-distance lovers. He was at Yale in his second year and I was in L.A., trying to direct episodes of television and getting rejected. This is pre-Zoom. We weren’t Skyping. We didn’t FaceTime. We would text each other and send each other emails and communicate on Instagram. That was how we wrote. We would just send each other ideas.
And though there was some back-and-forth when it came to moments like the pissing scene in Zola, the process largely went off with a hitch.
Aziah King Wasn’t On The Set Of Zola, But She Frequently Provided Input For Janicza Bravo And The Cast
Aziah King, whose personal story served as the basis of Zola, was very much a part of the production, even if she wasn’t on set when Janicza Bravo and the cast were making things happen in front and behind the camera. When speaking with Time Magazine following the film’s 2021 release, King revealed that despite not being able to be on set because of a pregnancy, she was in constant contact with the director and cast, providing insight and advice to better tell the story.
This meant phone calls, FaceTime conversations, and other forms of communication to make sure everyone had everything they needed to properly tell the story. Through this contact, King said she and Taylour Paige grew quite close on a personal level.
Taylour Paige Worked At A Strip Club For Three Weeks To Prepare For Zola
Actors will find a variety of ways to prepare for a big role, and sometimes that means living life like the characters they’ll soon play on screen. And that’s exactly what Taylour Paige did to prepare for Zola. When speaking with Jonathan Majors for Interview Magazine ahead of the film’s premiere, Paige explained how she spent nearly a month working undercover at Crazy Girls on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood, saying:
Well, I didn’t want to look like a dancer, I wanted to look like a stripper bitch. I was already in a low period of, ‘What am I going to do next?’ I was in that stripper mentality. I was undercover, I didn’t tell anyone.
Paige revealed that a couple people thought they recognized her and asked what she was doing there, to which she said “Trying to get this money.”
Janicza Bravo Was Set On Shooting Zola On Film Instead Of Digitally
Zola has a unique visual quality that is both extremely realistic and heightened, and a lot of that has to do with the fact that the movie was shot on 16mm film, as opposed to digitally. When speaking with Kodak following the film’s release, cinematographer Ari Wegner revealed that director Janicza Bravo was dead set on taking an analog approach:
There was never any doubt that Zola was going to be shot on film, and for me it was a treat to come back to shooting 16mm. What I love about shooting on film, especially 16mm, is that it is incredibly real and at the same time heightened - which actually describes quite well our approach to the film in general. Also, Janicza and I both love how film records skin tones, and this is a film that in many ways is about skin and bodies.
Taking a more old school approach to the filming also gave the cinematographer and director much more freedom, as the medium could handle shots with more intensive lighting better than digital, which was needed when shooting in the “Sunshine State.”
Riley Keough Worked With A Dialect Coach To Create Stefani’s Distinct Accent
Riley Keough, whose career is currently reaching new heights thanks to her Daisy Jones and the Six performance, shows up in Zola as Stefani, the sex worker who cons Taylour Paige’s character into traveling from Detroit to Florida for a stripping gig that turns into a disaster. To pull off the character’s distinct voice, Keough worked with dialect coach Aris Mendoza, who put her through the ringer to sound authentic to the character.
Keough told IndieWire in a 2021 interview that Mendoza created the jarring voice you hear on screen, and had the actress just keep doing the voice over and over again until she finally got it down.
The Makeup Team Took Advice From Pole-Dancers On Set
Even the most seasoned of professionals can learn something new, and that’s exactly what happened for makeup artist Kristen Alimena on the set of Zola. When speaking with Byrdie following the film’s release, Alimena revealed that she took advice and learned new techniques from pole dancers while filming the movie, specifically when it came to the use of body lotion. Unbeknownst to her, dancers could not have any body lotion on their skin “because they couldn’t have anything greasy on their bodies,” so the team had to come up with different ways to make their bodies shine and shimmer in the movie, which resulted in applying a “glowy powder” to Riley Keough’s skin for her strip club scene.
Hopefully these behind-the-scenes facts from the making of Zola make you want to revisit the over-the-top Black comedy crime thriller. If you want to check it out for the first time in years, or the first time entirely, you can do so as Zola is streaming for free on Plex right now, in addition to other A24 movies like Gloria Bell, The Blackcoat’s Daughter (starting May 18), The Farewell, and others.
