Allison P. Davis and Zola’s Twitter Thread

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Shamita Basu: Welcome to In Conversation from Apple News Today. I'm Shamita Basu.

Shamita Basu: Every weekend, we talk with the journalists behind the best stories on Apple News+. Today on In Conversation, we're talking with Allison P. Davis. She's a features writer at New York Magazine. Davis recently profiled Zola. Now, you might remember Zola from her very viral Twitter thread back in 2015. In a series of 148 tweets, she detailed a mostly true story about a trip down to Florida for an exotic dancing gig gone awry. Six years later, that viral thread has been made into a film directed by Janicza Bravo, simply titled Zola. It's out this week in theaters. But Davis writes about how it was a long six years for Zola's story to make it to the big screen. Along the way, lots of different interests try to take the story away from her. But with this film, Zola's voice is front and center.

Shamita Basu: Davis explains how the movie captures her essence. You're very much in Zola's head. You're processing with her and you're processing the trauma with her. You understand her defenses, which are humor and lightness and a little bit of side eye. And, you know, it's really quite a coup for the movie to put you in that psychological mindset as well as an audience member so that you understand that, like, yes, you're laughing, but like danger really is just outside the hotel room door.

Shamita Basu: Davis's article in New York Magazine is called The Real Zola. You can read and listen to it on Apple News with an Apple News Plus subscription. Davis spoke with Zola about her journey from Twitter thread to feature film, what it was like regaining control of her own narrative, and her plans for the future. Because as Zola says, she's got plenty more stories to tell.

Allison P. Davis: Allison, I'm wondering if you could take us back to 2015, when Zola first tweeted out this story. What was it like for you reading the story for the first time?

Allison P. Davis: So I was a blogger for The Cut, which is a vertical of New York Magazine, in 2015. And that meant I was just always online, like constantly getting notifications. And I had alerts set. And it was interesting because the Zola Twitter thread sort of came through the back door. And I remember a friend of mine was just like, hey, have you read this thing that's going around? It sort of started bubbling up on Black Twitter specifically. And she sent it to me and I was I just could not believe it at first I was like well this isn't real like this is some sort of performance art and then you just start reading it and I couldn't stop you know all my friends and I were texting about it and wondering is it real like what is this so this the intrigue behind such a crazy story told that seemed to like come out of the ether was so much fun and um such a different tenor to the internet that we were all so immersed in.

Allison P. Davis: And not to mention, you know, the Internet at the time, like what was Twitter.com like in the year 2015? Oh, my gosh. I can like barely remember. I feel like Twitter.com has changed so much, especially over the last president. I still think Twitter in 2015 was fun. And for me, at least, it was looking for aggregated news articles or like funny jokes. I was always using it to look for stories and to promote my own stories. And I feel like it was sort of like that for a lot of people that I was just looking for regurgitated news. And so for something so organic and random and like not celebrity associated to bubble up and take hold like that was really like a fun communal experience.

Allison P. Davis: I think one of the most fun days in the history of Twitter on Twitter. Yeah, that's high praise and one that multiple people have used to describe this thread. So can you briefly describe the story? What is the story?

Allison P. Davis: Sure. So a young woman who calls herself Zola was a waitress in Detroit. And one night she met a woman named Jessica and her and Zola really hit it off in like in sort of a way that I feel like you only can when you're like 19. And like female friendship is often sort of like a romance in itself and they met and they like fell into their like immediate sisterhood love flush and Zola was also an exotic dancer and so was this girl Jessica. Jessica mentioned she was going down to Florida with a friend to dance and they could go together make a lot of money and it could be a fun you know like I think they call it a hoe trip and Zola is loves adventure and if you meet her she's like spunky and open and fun and loves a little chaos. So she said yes. And they go down to Florida and it quickly turns out that the gentleman that arranged the trip is actually a pimp and very quickly devolves into not just dancing but prostitution that Zola never took part in but was all of a sudden expected to take part in. And over the course of a weekend, I think it was 48 hours, she was exposed to this very seedy underbelly of the Florida sex trafficking scene and was stuck in a hotel room with this girl. Jessica as she was supposed to sell her body. And so it's actually a very dark story, but the way that Zola presented it was one that was like darkly comedic. And I think as a way to process sort of her trauma and having been in this situation she wrote about it in a first person can you believe this absurd situation that I got myself into but also got myself out of

Allison P. Davis: And I don't want to give too much away for people who haven't seen the movie yet. No, sure. Yeah, it was quite a caper. So describe, if you can, you know, why did this story take off in such a way on Twitter?

Allison P. Davis: It was a time when people could and were just tweeting out super mundane things. This is what I ate today. Why did Zola's story suddenly reach so many people? Well, it definitely wasn't mundane. So if your timeline was full of people saying, wow, I just ate the best fried chicken sandwich of my life and that was the most exciting thing, like this clearly was a different caliber of news. The story itself was interesting, but Zola told it so well. She built suspense. She had a narrative. You read it and it was like captivating from the first line. You know, she just innately understood storytelling to the highest degree. And her voice was refreshing and she used amazing language that people, you know, slang terms that weren't as popular. Or just like her catchphrases or the way that she described things or the dialogue she captured and decided to present. You know, she did take some liberties with the facts, but that's because, you know, she's a storyteller. And so she laid it out in this way that you felt like you were watching a movie just by reading her tweets. And I think that's why you couldn't look away.

Allison P. Davis: So I want to get back to the Twitter thread in just a moment. But first, you spent some time with Zola. You went out to clubs with her and her mom, who she is very close to. What did you want readers to learn about Zola through your eyes on this night out with her?

Allison P. Davis: The Twitter thread presented one side of Zola. Zola is genuinely, uniquely, and thoroughly always herself. But, you know, everyone has a bit of an internet persona. And I think that her has presented somebody who was smart and cunning, but a little tough and mouthy. And I think that especially for Black women, you can get stuck being pigeonholed as a person. And this is her big story and this movie coming out as her big moment. And I really wanted people to see a complete woman, not just a meme. because it had been such a long time since that Twitter thread came out that people were foggy on the details. They were foggy about the person. They were foggy about the original woman at the heart of the story. I really wanted people to understand, like, no, she told this one story, but that's not all of her. And that one story has multiple sides and shades and different psychological levels, and so does she.

Allison P. Davis: And I wanted people to remember when they were watching the movie who was really at the center of it and who was at the center of the story, and it was Zola. And I'd met her before because I think I knew even when she first started courting Hollywood that there was really something different about her and her relationship to the story and her relationship to the story getting told as a film. And when I met her in California, I was like, I guess it was in 2016 I met her. I was like, she's a really sweet person and a really thoughtful person. And she's also a storytelling genius. And so I just want everybody who encounters her to see that as well.

Allison P. Davis: So that was really my goal. Yeah, a lot of what it seems you're laying out in this piece is an explanation of how the story changed hands. And it seems like Zola's story fell out of her hands the moment that she tweeted it. It went viral. And soon after, Rolling Stone magazine came knocking. So can you tell us what happened there?

Allison P. Davis: After the Twitter thread, it was clear every journalist working wanted to tell that story. I always think that Zola had already told that story. So Rolling Stone sent a journalist to talk to her more. And it was interesting. I think that there were a lot of ways that you could have written that story at the time, you know, getting to know her more, getting to know her journey through Hollywood or just any number of paths in. But I think that Rolling Stone decided to do sort of a deep dive investigation into the actual events of the story and who the players were and like what the facts were. And they laid out the full story from every side. You had Zola's story. You had her living in Detroit. But you also had Jessica's story and that contradicted Zola's story. And then you also have the whole story of the pimp and his, like, sex trafficking crimes. And it became, I think, a much bigger and, like, more serious and more journalistic with a capital J endeavor.

Allison P. Davis: And all of those details were what Hollywood could then look at and say, okay, here is IP that we know how to purchase, option, turn into a movie. It was much harder to option a Twitter thread because nobody had ever tried, I guess. So just in that very technical way, the story became Rolling Stones, and then Hollywood bought it from Rolling Stone and not directly from Zola. So from that minute on, it just became not hers to control anymore.

Allison P. Davis: And it's difficult because it was a personal story, and talking to Zola, you know, she really reiterated how much she owns her writing. She's always been a writer. That's what she's always wanted to do. And also how much she owns her sort of online identity. You know, she was a child of the internet, she said, and she was on MySpace before anything else and sort of like cultivating her voice and her image online. And then also she really, really took ownership over her sexuality. And that was something that was a big part of the Twitter thread. You know, her life as an exotic dancer, her understanding of boundaries in these situations. and she lost control of it a little bit in that moment in Florida and regained control over it when she decided to write the story the way that she wanted to and then lost it again when it became Rolling Stones and then Hollywood

Allison P. Davis: And so I think that was another goal of mine with the piece was to really just restore ownership in the eyes of the public, that it was always her story to tell and own and control.

Allison P. Davis: So interestingly enough, the first person that this sort of falls into the hands of in terms of Hollywood was James Franco, right? How was James Franco involved in the project and in steering it in the beginning?

Allison P. Davis: So James Franco, you know, came off of Spring Breakers and there was a real vibe around him. And he had a production company called Rabbit Bandini and they optioned the Rolling Stone article. And, you know, in the piece, Zola had mentioned how she, after all the paperwork had been signed, she got a call from James Franco to come meet with him and talk to him and sort of give him her energy and her blessing. And then after that, Franco had screenwriters that he worked with and directors that he worked with, and the project was very much in their hands. And it was two white gentlemen who wrote an original script. There was some holdup because the original script really didn't quite capture Zola's voice. You know, from what I've heard, it was very much like an action movie or like a movie with a capital M and much more of a, you know, like Michael Bay goes to a strip club in Florida versus like a study.

Allison P. Davis: Yeah, very different than something that was more intimate and about two women and survival and money and sex. At the time, it was a combination of, OK, this script isn't what we want out of this. maybe two white men are not the right voices to translate this Twitter story written by a Black woman for the masses. And I was told that James Franco got very, very busy with acting projects, so they stepped away from it. And then there was the lull of like, okay, is this project dead? Who will take it back? What will happen? And in that time, you know, Hollywood was shifting a bit.

Allison P. Davis: Well, let me ask, actually, before you go on, Alison, how did Zola feel during that part of the film's development? How did she feel about James Franco and the earliest iteration of the movie and the script?

Allison P. Davis: So Zola really liked James Franco. She said that when they met, he invited her to a set of a movie he was working on. And, you know, he really sat with her and talked with her and asked her questions and listened and was impressed and curious and made her feel part of things. But then, you know, she went back. She was pregnant at the time and then she had her first child and she moved back to Detroit with her then-fiancé and lived her life. And in living her life, she never really heard from anybody again. At some point, she caught wind of changes that they were making to the story for the script that she wasn't comfortable with, but she sort of felt like she didn't have control. She didn't have a voice. She didn't have power to say, like, I don't think you should add this part in which I try and solicit underage Russian women to also join the prostitution ring because that didn't happen and I would never.

Allison P. Davis: So there was part of her that just was a little heartbroken and also had to let it go. And then when James Franco contacted her to say that he was stepping back from the project, she was like, OK, I guess this is done. And what I really liked about talking to Zola was she kept reminding me that, like, if you liked this story, I have so many others. And I'm a writer. And, like, this is not the only tale that I have. And this is not the only chance I will have to tell a story. But I think she came to terms with maybe the project dying. But she felt confident that some other time in her life she would have another platform and more to say.

Allison P. Davis: So time passes again. And then without really her knowing what was going on, there was Hollywood happening. You know, there was business meetings at Chateau Marmont and agent calls and manager emails. And Janixa Bravo, who is a director who directed a film called Lemon, around the same time had, like, finally had her moment at Sundance and was a name that was on people's lips. And she had been interested in the project long before all of this happened. But at the time people were shopping it around, she didn't have the capital or the clout, really, to option the project for herself, and she lost out to Franco. So she heard that the project had been let go. actually she heard about it through like her famous actress friend Jodi Turner Smith which is like just it's all so Hollywood you know and emailed her agent and said I want this and then Hollywood had shifted where people thought about who should tell whose story in different ways and she went through a whole sort of pitch process and then was chosen to be the writer and director

Allison P. Davis: So she rewrote the script alongside of Jeremy O'Harris, a playwright who was still at Yale Drama School at the time. But now he, Slave Play and Daddy were the two that he's like staged professionally. So now he's a huge name. But at the time he was just like trying to graduate. He, you know, helped Aniksa write the script. And that was it. They really shaped it. And they really included Zola. And much like I was trying to do with this piece, they went back to the source and interviewed her and talked to her. and got the chance to listen to the interview tapes with the Rolling Stone journalists that had just been like sitting dormant for five years that were also just like a treasure trove of information and color and voice and Zola. And so the three of them created something that felt like her. And when you watch it, it feels like her Twitter thread. It sounds like her And it like a thing that I know

Allison P. Davis: She said that she was very happy with the portrayal of her life and her personhood on screen which is huge And in fact her name appears now in the credits right Well, her legal name, which is Asia Kang. She gets a based on the tweets by credit and also an executive producer credit. Is that right?

Allison P. Davis: Yes. That kind of credit and that kind of title and then the compensation that comes with that title, I know, was something that was a really big negotiation point for Janixa Bravo, the director and writer, when she was helping negotiate terms, that she wanted to set a precedence that people who give their story to Hollywood, especially Black women whose story is often just taken and put out there without any sort of compensation, do get compensation. And so now the next time there is a viral Twitter story or a viral TikTok or a viral anything or a magazine article about a person that goes bonkers, the person at the heart of it, there is now a model to say, but look what Zola got and I want the same. And I think that's just, you know, as the IP wars heat up like this, we have to remember that these are real people who have real lives and would like to be treated fairly.

Allison P. Davis: You alluded to this a little bit earlier, but there is this dynamic on the Internet of Black creators going uncredited for their work. And it feels like Zola was a really early example of that. But she's an exceptional case because now she is back to being at the center of her own story. Can you talk a bit about that dynamic and why you think Zola managed to find her rightful place back at the center of her own story?

Allison P. Davis: I thought a lot about this. And one of the producers that I spoke to for the story, who's a producer on the film, mentioned that, yes, the sort of five-year delay was, like, very frustrating for everybody involved, especially Zola, who just, like, wanted to see her movie. but at the same time it's like people slowly and incrementally and like it's not solved yet but begin to realize that you just can't do the thing that you mentioned like you can't just take a creator's content and absorb it and appropriate it and make it yours and make it push it out into popular culture and not compensate people and that has to do with gatekeepers changing a bit and people becoming more aware and also social media becoming louder and holding people accountable in different ways and not letting the credit be like erased. And so I think that if this movie had been made when it was supposed to be made, it would be a completely different story and it probably would have been a much more disappointing one. But just that little bit of a time shift opened the door a little bit more for Zola to get her credit.

Allison P. Davis: The way that you describe Zola in this profile, she seems like a person who's really aware of the way that other people might underestimate her or have misconceptions about her. Can you talk about that?

Allison P. Davis: It's really telling that when the Twitter thread first dropped and it was getting attention and including attention from like big Hollywood names and Ava DuVernay sort of incorrectly tweeted, I'm paraphrasing, but oh my God, this is amazing. There's so much untapped talent in the hood and Zola was like I'm not gonna let that stand and she tweeted back like love you Ava but I'm from the suburbs you know and I think she understands that like as any woman does especially any black woman who engages in their own sexuality the way that Zola does you know how the world will see you like you've been taught that since birth and to understand the ways in which you're underestimated is as innate as breathing and so I don't think it's any feat that she understands ways that she's underestimated, but I have always been impressed at the way that she refuses to just be quiet about it. I find that really inspiring.

Allison P. Davis: So, you know, watching her understand how she might come off and A, not care, and B, continue to assert who she is while being exactly who she wants to be makes for a fantastic profile subject, in my opinion.

Allison P. Davis: How's Zola feeling these days? What is she reflecting on? What does she want to happen next?

Allison P. Davis: You know, I always give people a lot of space after a profile. So I haven't spoken to Zola too, too much other than the sort of cursory, did you like it? And she said, yes. And, you know, can I have issues? And I said, how many? And I sent her a box. and you know but I've been paying really close attention to her on Instagram and like you know she went away to Hawaii with her family and looked glorious and like relaxed and like she was just loving life and then she was on the sort of premiere circuit you know just like getting her flowers and looking really happy and again basking in her glory and then A24 the production company that's behind the movie released a book of her tweets and it says you know Zola on the front and it's all her words with an introduction by Roxanne Gay. And it's again, just sort of elevating her work to the literary level that it was, it always should have been at, you know, I've watched her promote that and be ecstatic over that.

Allison P. Davis: And at the end of our time together, I asked her, you know, what do you want to do with all of this? And she said that she just wants to write. And she knows that now she feels validated as a writer and that she knows she's good at writing and she feels confident that she can go on and do more of it. So I'm personally really excited to see what she produces next on her own. The next big Zola story.

Allison P. Davis: Allison P. Davis, thank you so much for talking with us. I really appreciate it.

Shamita Basu: Yes. Thank you guys so much. This was great. Davis's article, The Real Zola, is available for Apple News Plus subscribers. iPhone users can subscribe in the Apple News app. Thank you.