Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Olivia and Isabella Cohen . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Olivia and Isabella , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?
Olivia: I think both media and society highly misunderstand twins in particular. They are often fetishized or infantilized or treated like a funny gimmick, rather than two individual and distinct identities. You look at the Shining Twins, Thing 1 and Thing 2, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum and you can see twins are something to entertain or something to be observed from afar. But in reality, twins are just two normal siblings born simultaneously, and their relationship and bond is so much more complex than meets the eye. That’s why, in our recent short film “Never Getting Rid of Me, Bitch”, we, as twins, aimed to tell a story about twins that accurately reflected the complex and deep bond most twins have, as well as highlighting both their individuality and their bond at the same time. Twins are people too and it’s about time that the media reflect that!
Isabella: I think the reason people are so fascinated by twins is that they are different and people so badly want to understand it and dissect it; however, you have non-twins writing what they THINK twins are, which is honestly just what they HOPE twins are. Gimmicky, funny, trickster, sexy, youthful, clownish, competitive, psychic etc. But what it does is create real-life consequences for actual twins in real life. Ever since I could remember, random strangers on the street the most inappropriate, outlandish questions about the only existence I’ve ever known, and with no finesse or respect whatsoever. And this is the same story I hear from any twins, particularly identical, that I meet. Instead of celebrating what makes the twin bond so special, it becomes a running joke or a fantasy for people. Our film delves into the reality of twinhood and how beautiful and tragic it can be. Twins are super special, but not always for the reasons people think.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Isabella: My sister and I have been acting ever since we were 12 years old. We didn’t get the support from our parents to go to auditions in the city so we had to be creative in finding a way into the business. At 16, we decided to start screenwriting and self-taught ourselves using Syd Field’s Guide to Screenwriting and Save the Cat. We ended up falling in love with writing and instead of just using it as a way to act, we ended up becoming multi-hyphenates. We went to the University of Southern California and majored in screenwriting, where we really took our stories to a new level. We’ve been acting and writing ever since. We got our first managers and agents in 2020/2021 and things have really just progressed a lot since then. Our most recent combination of both of these skills was our debut short film, “Never Getting Rid of Me, Bitch” which we wrote, produced, and starred in. Just solely in writing, we had a script optioned by a big production company. Solely in acting, we most recently guest starred on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Olivia: In terms of our brand, I think we want to be known as strong female multihyphenates who tell stories by women, about complex women, for women. We’re also hoping that we can one day get to a point where we can be female mentors to young women going into film and mentor them in the ways we’ve been mentored or maybe even in the ways we haven’t been.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
Olivia: I believe something non-creatives struggle to understand about being creative is how much rejection, uncertainty, and instability there is in this career (and life). As you get older, you see your friends and classmates begin to start building out their careers and families and it can be hard to set roots as a creative because you always have to be ready for the next opportunity whenever and wherever that is. Being creative is great for spontaneity, play, and adventure, but definitely hard when times are slow and you don’t have much to fall back on. So I think it’s easy for non-creatives to see creatives as being “lazy” if they aren’t working a traditional 9-5, but I don’t think they realize the mental gymnastics artists and creatives go through every day to hold onto a dream with no certainties, no matter how much hard work you put into it. It’s a different kind of work, but it’s work nonetheless.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
Isabella: I think society can best support artists by taking a career in arts more seriously, especially a career that hasn’t taken off yet. I think a lot of creatives feel like they are behind in life because they don’t have a traditional 9 to 5 or because they work customer service jobs to support their art. I’ve heard the “When are you going to get a real job?” question one too many times in my life or the “Well, it doesn’t count as a job because you aren’t making money”. I think that can invalidate all the hard work creatives put into their career and craft. If anything, they are working SO much harder than people realize, knowing they might not even get anything in return. I don’t think a lot of people would put in the same hard work if a return wasn’t guaranteed at the end. I’m just not sure where the myth came from that artists don’t work hard or don’t work at all. They work hard and they have to be creative and innovative about how they share their art with the world. Also, so many other careers have set out paths you can take to climb the ladder. Artists really are winging it and relying on passion and hope. Society has to give artists more credit.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.oliviacohen.me and www.isabellacohen.me
- Instagram: @the_cohen_twins
- Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4370610/ https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4643333/