Today we’d like to introduce you to Olivia Cohen.
Hi Olivia, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My sister and I started as actresses back when we were about 11 years old. We had all this creativity and emotion bottled up and nowhere to put it, so we began taking acting classes and eventually fell in love with it. As we continued to take acting more seriously, we thought about going to theatre school for college. However, our parents weren’t very supportive of us pursuing acting, so we instead decided to convince them to allow us to pursue screenwriting (while we of course still did acting on the side). So at 16, we wrote our first screenplay (which was horrible as expected of a sixteen-year-old haha), but it was at that point on that we fell in love with not just acting in front of the screen but writing and creating stories behind the screen as well.
We both got into the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts in the Writing for Screen and Television program as a writing duo, but eventually branched off and began writing our own material. After college, we were fortunate enough to find some success in both writing (I placed in the semifinals of the Academy Awards Nicholls Fellowship while my sister became part of the inaugural class of Mentorship Matters) and acting (we got our agents/managers and just guest starred in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia as Charlie’s sisters).
Most recently we wrote, executive produced, and starred in a short about our unique twin bond called “Never Getting Rid of Me, Bitch” that we’re really proud of. It’s also gotten really amazing reviews from industry professionals, so it really feels like the culmination of all our hard work from our 11-year-old selves that stuck with it all.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
We didn’t have many connections in the film world as we’re from New York, so my sister and I really had to hustle and network to get the representation and opportunities that we have. I actually found my managers by working at the management company for two years as a literary manager before they even decided to take a look at my material. Luckily, once they did, I was able to introduce them to Bella. Then they introduced us to our agents… and it all became a chain reaction of sorts. One that I hope keeps on building.
But it’s taken years and years of hustling in both the acting and filmmaking arenas to finally get to a point where we had the knowledge, connections, skillset, and wherewithal to make something like Never Getting Rid of Me, Bitch.
Speaking of struggles pertaining to our film, we decided to very ambitiously shoot our first short film entirely outdoors, with underwater scenes, fire, hiking, crying, etc., so of course things were going to go wrong. Actually, on our first day of the shoot, we were shooting high in the Angeles National Forest Mountains and the fog was so dense that our producer got into an accident (wasn’t her fault!) and we had to start shooting the first scene without her. There was no service, and we had no idea what happened, so it was a bit of a chaotic start to shooting the film.
Another scene required us to tread water in a freezing cold lake since we were shooting night for day (i.e.: sunset for sunrise) and I was so cold, I almost (laughably) had a full-blown panic attack on camera.
But it’s all parts of the ups and downs of filmmaking and pursuing a career in the entertainment industry that just make you grow and appreciate your ability to triumph over struggles, as cliche as that sounds. It’s the magic of it all! If it were easy, it wouldn’t nearly be as fun.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
As I said earlier, creating “Never Getting Rid of Me, Bitch” is by far one of our most proud achievements.
To start, the script was really personal to us as we really wanted to write something that showed twins in a realistic and honest way, as opposed to the gimmicky and borderline-offensive portrayals we had seen in prior media. Being a twin is a beautiful and sometimes heartbreaking, but wildly magical experience and we wanted to create a piece of art that captured that. Everyone always asks us, “What’s it like to be a twin?” and the answer is so complex that we wanted the film to answer the question for us.
We also wanted the film to speak on the topic of mental illness and how it can affect the family members of the person suffering from it just as much as it affects the one suffering since that’s not really explored in media often either.
It was awesome, as actresses, to be able to portray characters that we not only wrote but also that were so near and dear to our hearts. Our amazing director Thanika actually cast the roles herself and she did such a fabulous job at aligning our unique essences with the essences of the characters.
It was also our first-time executive producing and, boy oh boy, did we learn a lot. We had a ton of help from our superstar producer, Lily, and learned so much about what it takes pre, during, and post-production to make a high-quality film. Not to mention the money… filmmaking is expensive, y’all! But it was worth every dollar, and we are so grateful to everyone who donated to our crowdfunding campaign and made this film possible.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Honestly, creative collaboration makes me so happy. Whether it’s writing a script with my sister, coming together with an entire film crew to shoot a scene as an actress or a producer, or just doing silly little creative things with friends like collaging or painting on canvas, I love to collaborate in a creative space.
As adults, we have so much responsibility and life gets so serious and isolating at times, so to play creatively and freely with others like we’re kids again – making art simply for the sake of enjoyment – makes my heart sing.
Creativity aside, a few other things that make me happy include: my rescue pup Boba, matcha lattes, traveling (just went to Seoul, South Korea!), fashion, skincare, diet Pepsi, and, of course, TikTok.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.oliviacohen.me
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_cohen_sisters/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivia-cohen-2107b5103/
- Other: https://seedandspark.com/fund/never-getting-rid-of-me-bitch#story
Image Credits
First photo by Jesus Querra
