Ivy Wolk’s ‘Anora’ Controversy and General Vibe, Explained

If you're still, unadvisedly, on the app X (formerly known as Twitter), you may have noticed that the film distributor NEON had to lock down a post it made on November 11 about a minor character in its Best Picture frontrunner, Anora . "Meet Crystal," reads the post . The accompanying 18-second video shouldn't warrant much controversy. But controversy it got, because the character is played by 20-year-old actress Ivy Wolk. Wolk, depending on who you are, is either an exciting but mostly untested young performer who's played minor roles in some relatively major productions or a long-running internet character who causes your eyes to roll back in your head. If you're in the former group, we have an explainer for you. If you're in the latter, then enjoy getting mad at this too.

Who is Ivy Wolk? (Actress Edition) A 20-year-old actress who had a good run this year, appearing in multiple buzzy projects across film and TV. She's getting the most press for her time in Sean Baker's Anora, an awards contender that won the Palme d'Or at Cannes this spring, in which she plays the friend of one of the main characters, Claire. As Ani's (Mickey Madison) friend, she doesn't do a ton in the movie, but she has a few scenes, in which she performs well, and gets in one line about Helen Keller that hits. Over on FX, she played a high-school student on English Teacher . In one episode, she complains about getting an F and says that she's going to have to sell her body on Backpage, which is also funny. Her upcoming projects include the A24 movie If I Had Legs I'd Kick You and Jonah Hill's Outcome. Generally, she plays Zoomers with trademark bangs who have a tendency to say cancellable things.

Who is Ivy Wolk? (Controversy Edition) An online personality and controversy machine, she has been both entertaining and annoying people since she was 14, when she gained 200,000 followers on TikTok under the handle Given that she is ... uhhh ... white and skinny, you can see where the problems start. She left TikTok when she got cast on a Freeform show, Everything's Gonna Be Okay, per Variety , then got back on during the pandemic under the handle These days, she's off that, too.

Her controversy began when people found some old, offensive, edgelord-y tweets of hers that are now deleted. Since then, she's been a lightning rod, and she still tweets things like "i was the only girl at the diddy party they all said no to," which she spouted off on September 26 of this year. She's also associated with the ever-difficult Dimes Square group (though she lives in Brooklyn). In 2022, the writer Mike Crumplar reported on his Substack that her fellow edgelord Honor Levy called her "the youngest actress ever to be cancelled."

What does this have to do with Anora? It's mostly just that she's in it. People replied with comments like "Thanks, now I know not to watch," " Truly has a face so off putting makes you not want to watch the movie at all from this clip alone," and " Glad y'all uploaded this because I was gonna try to see this movie soon but I absolutely will not if that lame is in it." The tweet, by now, has 1,400 retweets, which are largely quotes.

Wolk herself responded to the controversy by tweeting a bunch, naturally.