Up next in 10
‘ZOLA’. The movie is about a wild stripper saga set in Florida. The film stars Taylour Paige and Riley Keough playing strippers Zola and Stefani as they set out on a wild roadtrip through Florida with a nameless pimp, a clueless boyfriend and some Tampa gangsters. The film is based on a viral 2015 Twitter thread from stripper of the same name. The film also stars Nicholas Braun, Colman Domingo, Ari’el Stachel, Jason Mitchell and Sophie Hall.
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[Video Title]
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0:00
well back in 2015 our guests jumped on
0:02
twitter and shared a wild experience and
0:03
a thread that went viral
0:05
it got comments from ava duvernay and
0:07
missy elliot both citizens of our show
0:09
now that story has been turned into a
0:11
movie by a24 films one of my personal
0:13
favorite movie houses right now
0:15
and you can also get the novel the story
0:16
by asia zola king featuring
0:18
contributions by
0:19
janixa bravo and roxane gay also uh
0:21
janixa is also the director of this film
0:23
it's available at shop a24films.com
0:27
with us right now zola on sway in the
0:29
morning
0:30
zola what up
0:34
good morning graham zola
0:39
how are you what part of the country are
0:41
you in
0:46
say that again i'm sorry say that again
0:49
atlanta
0:49
georgia oh you want to learn georgia
0:52
okay okay
0:53
good okay so all right she's not in
0:55
florida she's not in florida okay i
0:57
thought she might have been in cali it's
0:58
not like you just waking up [ __ ]
1:03
florida is where all that wild [ __ ] went
1:05
down man
1:06
zola i'm so happy to have you on the
1:08
show um to hear your voice
1:10
because for the longest so many of us
1:12
just knew you through your
1:14
writing literally through this twitter
1:16
thread 2015
1:17
citizens it's your first time getting to
1:19
know zola i'm sure you
1:21
probably don't realize this is a woman
1:22
who had the entire internet
1:25
belonged to this one woman in 2015
1:28
with this what is it a 148 tweet
1:31
thread like db said that went viral
1:35
and there's so much zig zaggy adventures
1:38
that went down with the story
1:39
it's a stripper saga it's also about um
1:43
sex trafficking it's also about being
1:46
careful with
1:47
going on trips with people you just met
1:49
within 24 hours
1:52
because they might be [ __ ] wild zolo
1:54
when you sat down
1:56
in front of your computer or in front of
1:57
your phone to share
1:59
this story for the very first time were
2:01
you thinking to yourself
2:02
yo this is about to become a viral
2:05
moment or were you just like
2:07
i have to get this out of my head what i
2:09
just went through and put it as like a
2:12
a diary entry of sorts online
2:16
for me it would have told this
2:19
particular story on the internet before
2:21
i didn't go into like detail like when i
2:23
first got home because this happened in
2:25
march
2:26
i told this story on twitter in october
2:29
so within that time frame like i had
2:31
told it on the internet before
2:32
i just didn't go into detail about what
2:35
really
2:36
happened so at that point that night i
2:38
was just um
2:40
i want to say our pictures just like
2:41
popped up on my phone you know how
2:43
facebook does the like memory situation
2:45
like it was like something like that
2:47
and i was like you know i'm kind of
2:49
triggered like i think i'm gonna tell
2:51
people about this [ __ ] right here like
2:53
and so at that moment i just kind of
2:55
really got into it
2:56
it had nothing to do with you know going
2:58
viral like i said that's
2:59
something that i always did with my
3:01
followers like we just have this key key
3:04
moment like with my my little internet
3:06
community
3:07
so i was just doing what i usually do
3:12
for anyone who is unfamiliar with this
3:14
story because
3:16
it is quite the whirlwind can you give
3:18
like a
3:19
60-second synopsis yeah so
3:23
i was a waitress through the daytime and
3:25
a stripper at night i was waitressing at
3:27
hooters at the time
3:28
in michigan where i'm from and i met a
3:31
girl she came
3:32
she was in my section and we kind of
3:34
just hit it off she told me she was a
3:35
dancer as well so there's this like
3:38
unwritten rule that dancers and sex
3:41
workers kind of
3:42
you know band together it's just one of
3:44
those things we do um
3:46
as sex workers and so she told me she
3:48
was a dancer we exchanged
3:50
numbers the very next day she calls me
3:52
and she's like i'm going to florida to
3:54
dance
3:54
again that unwritten rule that sex
3:56
workers stick together i'm like if you
3:58
go and i'm going
4:00
so we end up going to florida she told
4:02
me it was myself
4:03
her her boyfriend and their roommate i
4:06
got there and
4:07
just very quickly realized that was a
4:09
lie her roommate was actually
4:11
her pimp i mean he took my id he took my
4:13
phone he took all her money
4:15
i mean it just you know i had a mess
4:17
real quick
4:18
and so i you know just maneuvered my way
4:21
through that
4:22
weekend and i did it in a way that
4:24
because i realized her pimp just wanted
4:26
money
4:27
and so any way i could contribute to
4:30
helping him get money
4:31
without selling myself is
4:34
what i'ma do so i wrote about how i
4:37
maneuvered my way through that
4:40
wow it was hard for people to believe
4:44
i didn't know i remember reading this
4:46
when it was coming out i was thoroughly
4:47
entertained thank you i never got a
4:49
chance to thank you
4:50
um for that for entertaining my mind
4:54
to this day that's still the best moment
4:56
on twitter i thought it was amazing
4:58
because it's such a fresh place it was a
5:01
fresh space and nobody had really
5:03
accomplished what you accomplished who
5:05
what was the first
5:06
big name that really reached out to you
5:09
and say hey
5:10
i love what you're doing i see what
5:11
you're doing this is great
5:13
good luck to you who was that first name
5:15
that just kind of
5:16
took you aback that reached out since
5:20
this was
5:20
on twitter obviously everything was
5:22
instant and kind of
5:24
a live moment so um we were all kind of
5:27
in this moment together so all of the
5:30
responses that had me
5:31
like a bit taken back were actually on
5:34
twitter or in my dm
5:36
and they were kind of all happening at
5:37
the same time i mean um
5:39
when it came to renee like you said i
5:41
mean missy elliot
5:43
she just was like you know good job keep
5:45
telling stories and i'm like
5:46
missy elliot is is hype about something
5:49
that came out of my mouth
5:50
like girl what about the things that
5:52
have come out of your mouth but
5:54
it was missy elliot for me it was erica
5:56
badous for me
5:57
it was solange moles for me i mean i was
6:00
just like there's no way
6:01
like all these amazing black women who
6:03
whose words
6:04
i've held on to and looked up to my
6:06
entire life they have been you know
6:08
inspired me to be who i am
6:10
i've been like i did something like it
6:12
was just one of those moments that i
6:14
still can't fully process
6:17
and after receiving like you seeing all
6:19
of the attention
6:21
and you know immediately once that tweet
6:23
thread went out
6:24
people were calling for a movie you know
6:26
it's been like
6:27
what six years so i'm wondering did you
6:31
after getting all that attention did you
6:33
start taking immediate steps with
6:35
protecting this work the ip of it
6:38
knowing that it had the potential to
6:39
turn into something bigger
6:42
yes i did we had got literally the next
6:44
day after everything went viral because
6:46
i actually deleted the tweets
6:47
like right instantly um and i did that
6:50
because
6:52
like i said i wasn't looking for a viral
6:53
moment so when i tweeted what i tweeted
6:56
um you know twitter they did their fbi
7:00
thing
7:00
and they started
7:05
and i was like oh this is a lot like if
7:07
i would have known this was going to be
7:08
the moment
7:09
i would have maybe used a fake name or i
7:11
wouldn't have posted some pictures like
7:13
i'm just all here talking to my friends
7:15
and
7:16
here we are with our address on the
7:18
internet so
7:19
you know i deleted it instantly at for
7:22
that reason
7:23
but it was too late once you put
7:24
something on the internet it's on the
7:25
internet they had screenshotted it it
7:27
was up on rap genius i'm like [ __ ]
7:29
saying a song
7:30
what is y'all doing
7:34
they had bars though you got bars zola
7:41
it was nothing i could do and then the
7:42
next day i got a car um from
7:44
james franco actually which again crazy
7:47
i'm like
7:48
who gave this man my number so he calls
7:51
me and he's like you know we have to do
7:52
something with this
7:53
i want to i want to fly you out and so
7:55
that that moment happened
7:57
and um we kind of jumped on it right
8:00
then and there
8:01
i didn't know how to go about owning
8:04
some tweets because
8:04
like is that even possible i'm sure i
8:06
checked the terms and conditions that
8:08
said
8:08
this is twitter's so i was trying to
8:11
figure all of that out
8:12
but no we hopped on it immediately we
8:15
did
8:15
i took my time in making a decision with
8:18
how we wanted to go about it
8:20
but as far as you know owning this story
8:23
and and this being my voice and
8:25
us owning this moment yeah we did that
8:27
instantly
8:28
wow now this is amazing um by the way we
8:31
got zola who's with us right now
8:33
the new film is called zola is in
8:35
theaters right now
8:36
i i would imagine you first of all
8:40
to get the right person to play you you
8:42
got taylor page to play you did you
8:44
have any say so and that's did you
8:46
choose her specifically to play you
8:49
you know and i keep saying i think that
8:51
was like a manifestation
8:52
moment like many moments in my life
8:54
because i did not
8:56
but janix and i were obviously always on
8:59
the same page i don't know if you
9:01
remember you said you were
9:02
there when i tweeted so twitter was like
9:04
cast they were doing their own casting
9:07
right and yeah it was like begging good
9:11
and kiki plumber i mean people were
9:12
doing their own casting which was
9:14
hilarious to see
9:15
but a lot of them had taylor paige as me
9:19
and i was like wait like six years ago i
9:22
was like
9:22
i like that i i if so when auditioning
9:25
had started happening
9:27
i mean you know there were a lot of
9:28
amazing actresses who who i came out but
9:32
i i still had my mind set on taylor i
9:35
had said it out loud to my mother who's
9:37
my manager
9:37
and she was like well you know just let
9:40
it let's see where it goes whoever you
9:41
know whoever feels most fitting and i'm
9:43
like no
9:43
i don't even want to see i don't even
9:45
want people to audition like i want
9:46
taylor that's it that's then we're done
9:49
and i guess jenixa had kind of felt the
9:51
same way and we never even talked about
9:52
it
9:53
she had seen her out at a function and
9:56
her brain was on the same track and so
9:58
it just kind of came
9:59
full circle wow yeah now in terms of
10:03
just actually she called and and
10:05
um taylor called me and she asked for my
10:08
blessing before she even
10:09
accepted the role so that's that's when
10:11
i was like oh yeah
10:12
this is my soul sister right here not
10:14
her she um
10:15
she um actually worked in a strip club
10:18
um just to prep for the role
10:20
worked in the strip club for about a
10:21
month yes she went undercover and worked
10:23
at a club she did
10:25
did she dance or said she was he just a
10:26
waitress is she sorry
10:28
she danced she did okay taylor all right
10:31
security she got into character okay
10:34
okay
10:35
commitment you gotta love it all right
10:37
you got you for that sale
10:38
bb you wanted to jump in yeah hey zola
10:41
um i got to see the film and um
10:43
obviously it's in theaters now but i
10:44
know there's some people who still
10:45
haven't seen it yet but
10:47
um without giving too much away
10:50
there's some pretty uh serious moments
10:53
that that take place uh in this in this
10:55
story that deal with
10:56
um we're you know working on back page
10:58
and having these uh customers and
11:00
clients come and just have like
11:02
a lot of sex and and in some cases
11:04
there's some sexual assault that happens
11:06
um i just wanted to get your thoughts on
11:10
there are several states which i'm sure
11:11
you're aware of that are trying to pass
11:12
these abortion laws um
11:14
even though some women are are raped and
11:17
they're trying to say that
11:18
you still can't have an abortion even
11:19
though this baby was uh
11:21
conceived through rape um and i just
11:24
wanted to know your thoughts on like
11:25
situations like that where
11:27
a woman should have the ability to
11:28
decide whether she wants to keep a baby
11:30
from a situation like that which
11:32
is um somewhat similar to what takes
11:34
place in zola
11:36
yeah for me i i think that this is the
11:39
way i feel about anything in dealing
11:41
with everyone not even just
11:43
women because this is such a broad
11:45
conversation and even in my film i keep
11:47
saying
11:48
that the sex work in itself gets a bad
11:51
rep because
11:52
it's so close to home when it comes to
11:55
sex trafficking
11:56
but with that conversation and with this
11:59
one it's like the one and the only
12:01
difference
12:01
and the only thing that matters is
12:03
consent
12:04
it's like once you take away my consent
12:06
to do something or once you take away my
12:09
my consent to to exist in in this realm
12:12
that's when we have a problem so you
12:14
know sex work isn't the problem
12:16
the problem is you took away my consent
12:18
and now this is sex trafficking
12:20
it's like you know me coping with with a
12:23
rape or me coping with abuse
12:25
isn't the problem you taking away my
12:28
consent to
12:28
not not want to keep this baby is is the
12:31
problem
12:32
so you know consent is is the
12:34
conversation
12:35
and i think that's the only conversation
12:39
i love it zola is here great question db
12:42
i appreciate you tackling that
12:44
um because this this covers so much it
12:46
does there's so many
12:48
when you watch the film citizens it's
12:50
called zola want
12:51
a matter of fact once you if you watched
12:53
it call us up 888-742-3345
12:56
or you may be in the dance community or
12:58
the sex work community you want to
12:59
comment 888-742-3345
13:02
what i'm curious about too zola is you
13:05
know all of us have worked in
13:06
entertainment for years
13:08
uh tracy db heather b who's not with us
13:10
today but uh has been in entertainment
13:12
for decades so have i
13:14
and one of the most ironic things you
13:16
have to cope with
13:17
is you know for all your life you desire
13:20
you have these passions you're shooting
13:21
for these goals and then you reach them
13:23
and you know and and then all of a
13:25
sudden everything that comes with it
13:27
attention
13:28
fame the whole nine how does fame feel
13:32
for you
13:33
becoming this famous you know i
13:36
i i guess i'm still processing that part
13:39
because people keep telling me i'm
13:41
famous
13:41
i'm like am i though i don't know i
13:44
don't
13:45
feel very different i mean people have
13:48
always kind of
13:49
just me being the personality i have and
13:50
me being a sex worker and me being a
13:52
black woman i mean
13:53
i've always lived under this sort of
13:55
microscope
13:56
like not by choice people have always
13:58
over analyzed my choices and my
14:00
decisions
14:01
and i've also always carried this you
14:03
know responsibility on my
14:06
back which i i don't mind i guess i'm
14:08
built for it but
14:09
to you know really be a voice
14:12
for people that look like me and live
14:14
the way i live because i love sex work i
14:16
have
14:16
absolutely you know there's trauma
14:20
attached to it of course when you do
14:21
deal with [ __ ] like this but just sex
14:24
work in itself
14:25
i enjoy being a dancer i enjoy being a
14:27
sex worker and and
14:28
so me and my black voice and this black
14:31
body in this black experience
14:33
i've always been kind of looked at and
14:35
in that way and
14:36
judged and kind of forced to have these
14:39
awkward
14:40
taboo conversations that's just i guess
14:42
my stance in the world
14:44
so it doesn't really feel much different
14:46
it doesn't feel much different
14:48
it doesn't feel much different
14:49
conversations on a bigger
14:51
scale and i appreciate that but it
14:53
doesn't feel much different for me
14:54
personally
14:55
okay and i'm interested in that because
14:58
uh dancing and sex work are two
15:00
different things correct
15:02
um it's sex work at the blanket term um
15:05
fancy any anything
15:07
in that realm of selling sex i mean even
15:09
the bouncer
15:10
has a cabaret license so he's a sex
15:12
worker by definition
15:14
okay so sex worker doesn't mean you're
15:16
actually having sex
15:18
absolutely not i mean cam girls are sex
15:21
workers you sell feet pics you a sex
15:23
worker you i mean
15:24
it's just a blanket term for the entire
15:27
you know
15:27
genre okay i love it even if it's
15:30
simulated
15:31
i'm curious zola when it comes to you
15:33
know the quote-unquote white [ __ ]
15:36
who got you into this mess jessica
15:40
um how does she feel about this film
15:43
like
15:43
did you consult with her at all does she
15:46
also have to get paid
15:47
since she's a part of this story as well
15:50
as you
15:52
well stephanie is a part of the story
15:55
but to answer your question
15:57
no we we don't talk we um
16:01
after everything ended up going viral
16:02
back in 2015
16:04
um she obviously came out with her
16:06
reddit response and said i was lying
16:08
of course i was and you know nobody
16:10
liked me and i made one dollar at the
16:12
club and i was the one tricking and i
16:14
mean she just gave a completely
16:17
you know ridiculous response and that
16:20
kind of put a bad taste in my mouth
16:22
because even at that time when the movie
16:24
conversation started i was like
16:26
you know i have no problem breaking this
16:28
girl off i mean we did both
16:29
go through this experience and i was
16:31
even still in a headspace like maybe she
16:33
was
16:34
manipulated maybe maybe i mean did i
16:36
really believe that
16:37
no but i was gonna hold on to it like i
16:39
said that unwritten law that sex workers
16:41
picked together
16:42
i was like maybe but when she said what
16:46
she said and just completely
16:48
bashed me as a black woman and just
16:50
completely tried to
16:52
you know belittle what it was that she
16:54
did to me
16:55
i was like actually no i'm straight
16:57
she's going to stay where she at
16:59
and then she then she tried to sue me we
17:01
went to court she said um
17:03
yeah i outed her as a sex worker which i
17:06
i don't know apparently she lost custody
17:07
of her child she tried to combine the
17:09
two
17:09
i'm like girl pulling all my stripper
17:12
friends got kids okay that ain't why you
17:14
lost your kid let's tell the truth
17:16
so it just didn't work and at that point
17:19
um she actually signed paperwork that
17:21
said after this court date like
17:23
we have no more connection to each other
17:26
whatever comes of my experience a book a
17:28
movie a series don't matter
17:30
it has nothing to do with you and you
17:32
agree that right
17:33
and her dumb ass was like right so you
17:36
know
17:41
here you are on sway in the morning and
17:43
she not
17:46
wow that that's um that's crazy um
17:49
so what's next are you gonna do another
17:52
twitter
17:53
rant or what's next
17:56
you know i think that the twitter
17:57
storytelling is all i think
18:00
we've done that and that is has been
18:02
exhausted
18:03
that lane is done it's tapped into we
18:05
see it can happen
18:06
moving on um i still write i mean i
18:10
write music i'm still a sex worker
18:12
i'm not only fans i'm a cam girl still i
18:14
mean
18:15
i'm down for one night only like i'm
18:16
still very much myself
18:18
okay and i still have all these
18:20
experiences that i'm willing to share
18:22
whether it be
18:23
on film or whether it be in print i mean
18:26
i'm just kind of basking in this moment
18:29
right now this has been a six year
18:31
process
18:31
and and this is me kind of adjusting
18:34
the fact that there's a movie and the
18:36
title is just my name i mean that's
18:38
that's kind of surreal and that's crazy
18:40
so i'm just taking this moment
18:42
in and and i really want to be able to
18:45
feel that
18:46
but after i mean i'm the door's open for
18:49
me i got my little foot in there so
18:52
i'm willing to do you got a big foot in
18:54
there plus plethora of things
18:56
anything whatever comes in front of me
18:58
i'm willing to try it
19:00
i like it zola i like it zola give it up
19:03
for zola
19:04
how's it going girl how's life in love
19:07
wit
19:08
with that what with this occupation how
19:10
hard is it to find love for you
19:12
or is it uh you know i'm i kind of move
19:16
in love the love surrounds me at all
19:19
times anyways
19:20
but when romantically it is a bit
19:23
difficult
19:24
you never i mean more so lately i can't
19:28
read people as well as i used to i don't
19:31
know if they like me or if they
19:35
think i have something for them i'm like
19:37
i ain't got [ __ ] for you
19:39
i have two kids like they eat before i
19:43
eat [ __ ]
19:43
i don't know what you over here for but
19:45
hey so i'm still
19:48
you know it gets it gets a little a
19:50
little confusing lately i'm just keeping
19:52
to myself these days
19:53
okay it's me and my baby yes there you
19:56
go
19:57
hey i love it zola uh pleasure to make
20:00
your acquaintance on this show
20:02
uh we're already familiar with you great
20:04
project
20:05
and we're looking forward to hearing
20:07
from you more okay
20:08
and if we want to follow you on your
20:10
only fans account how do we do that
20:13
it's zoller mood same hashtag all across
20:16
the board okay she's branded over here
20:18
golden moon get it
20:20
you see it that's a brand that's not
20:21
just a person she's a brand
20:23
all right make sure y'all check out the
20:25
film zola zola great speaker with you
20:30
okay you have a beautiful day and you're
20:32
a citizen sway in the morning
20:34
there she goes man
20:49
[Music]
20:52
you
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