How ‘Anora’s’ Ivy Wolk Went From TikTok Controversy to Acting in Sean Baker’s Sex Worker Dramedy
25.05.2024 - 15:41
/ variety.com
Ellise Shafer Social media has been both the downfall and saving grace for rising actor Ivy Wolk, who just made her film debut at Cannes Film Festival in Sean Baker’s critically lauded “Anora.” The 20-year-old L.A. native started making irreverent comedy videos in the early days of TikTok when she was just 14, amassing over 200,000 followers on an account called @fathoodbitch. But when she scored her first real acting job on the Freeform sitcom “Everything’s Gonna Be Okay,” she was forced to delete it — so she returned secretly in the midst of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic under the handle @livesinasociety.
As her TikTok following grew even larger, the tide of public opinion began to shift. People on the internet unearthed old offensive tweets of hers, and before she knew it, Wolk found herself shunned. At the same time, she was dealing with the death of a friend.
“I had sort of a meltdown,” Wolk tells Variety at a swanky beach club in Cannes, where she orders an iced tea that she immediately deems too sweet and leaves to sweat in the sun. “I was a very early canceled person, I guess, especially for someone my age. Like, to be canceled in a real way, to lose opportunities because of what I was saying — and I was still making these videos, being fucking defiant even though people hated my guts and were tearing me apart.” Eventually, Wolk gave into the pressure and posted on her Instagram Story that she planned to commit suicide.
“I was like, ‘I’m done with being alive. If everybody wants me to fucking kill myself, bitch, I’ll kill myself,'” she says. But, addicted to the instant gratification of social media, Wolk found herself on TikTok mere moments later.
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