“The Last of Us” actor Ariela Barer will star in A24’s “Deep Cuts,” replacing Odessa A’zion after she dropped out of the film due to controversy over her casting.
“Deep Cuts” is adapted from the 2025 novel by Holly Brickley. A’zion was originally cast in the role of Zoe Gutierrez, who is described in the book as half-Jewish and half-Mexican. A’zion, who is Jewish, said she hadn’t read the book and was unaware of the character’s origins when she signed onto the project. After a public outcry over complaints of whitewashing, A’zion swiftly exited the movie.
“Guys!! I am with ALL of you and I am NOT doing this movie. F— that. I’m OUT,” A’zion wrote on her Instagram Stories. “I’m so so sorry that this happened. It is SO important for me to let you in on how it all went down. I went in for Percy, but was offered Zoe instead and instantly said yes! I’m so pissed y’all, I hadn’t read the book and should have paid attention to all aspects of Zoe before accepting…and now that I know what I know? Fuck that. I’m out!”
Barer, whose recent credits include “How to Blow Up a Pipeline” and “See You When I See You,” is Mexican American and Jewish. She joins the previously announced cast of Cailee Spaeny (“Civil War,” “Priscilla”) and Drew Starkey (“Queer,” “Outer Banks”).
Set in the 2000s, “Deep Cuts” is described as a love story about two music-obsessed 20-somethings navigating the messy realities of ambition, belonging and adulthood over the course of an era-defining decade. Barer’s Zoe Gutierrez is the close friend of Cailee Spaeny’s character Percy and the ex of Starkey’s Joe.
More to come…
