Zoë Kravitz said of her script: “It was more of an emotional thing that I was trying to work out,” drawing on the experiences of women she’s close to. Photo / Chantal Anderson, The New York Times
Her directorial debut, the #MeToo horror-mystery Blink Twice, examines power dynamics between men and women.
In the summer of 2017, Zoë Kravitz, on a break from shooting a movie, posted up at a cafe in London with her laptop and began drafting her first full screenplay.
It wasn’t immediately clear to her what it would become, she said: “At first I wrote this kind of stream-of-consciousness novella, where the characters came to life.”
They eventually inhabited Blink Twice, her directorial debut, which revolves around a tech billionaire with a private party island, and the guests – whether unsuspecting or complicit – who are lured there. It’s a bacchanalia with shades of Lord of the Flies and Adam and Eve. At once a psychosexual thriller, a horror-mystery, a revenge fantasy, a dark comedy and a commentary on gender and class, Blink Twice was not inspired by any one event, or by her professional trajectory, Kravitz said in a recent video interview.
“It was more of an emotional thing that I was trying to work out – a combination of my own experiences and experiences of friends and family, other women that I’m close to, and not really having a place to put those frustrations and complicated feelings,” she said.
She had always wanted to direct, she said, but had no plans for how that would come to pass. But as she wrote – she finished the screenplay with her friend E.T. Feigenbaum – she realised she couldn’t “trust somebody else with this vision that I was having”.
The polished Blink Twice, which is in NZ cinemas now, stars an ensemble led by Channing Tatum, now Kravitz’s fiancee, and Naomi Ackie (Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker). The cast includes Adria Arjona (Hit Man), Haley Joel Osment and Geena Davis. They shot in the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, “about an hour away from any real town,” Kravitz said, giving them a heightened sense of camaraderie.
“We ate all our meals together. We hung out on the weekends. It was like this magical, magical time,” she said.
And they’re still vibing. “The group chat will not die,” she said. “It’s so cute. It just doesn’t end.”
Kravitz, 35, a onetime Catwoman and, as the daughter of Lisa Bonet and Lenny Kravitz, a member of Hollywood royalty, said she always knew her film was about power dynamics. But another theme – the degree to which women mask their needs and desires – revealed itself mostly in postproduction. “Really confronting those things: Why are we pretending? Because we’re afraid. And when we stop – the power of being able not to pretend.”
Kravitz talked about refining the story around real-life events, working with Tatum and the unusual souvenir she brought home from set. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
Q: You started writing this before the #MeToo movement picked up, before the allegations about Jeffrey Epstein and others flying women to their island retreats gained steam. Once all that came out, did you think, I’m on the right track with this story?
A: If anything, I had a moment where I was wondering whether this was something I should pursue, because it’s now [perceived to be] about something that it’s not. Is there a need for this movie now that this conversation has picked up? But it was really interesting having to rewrite the story based off what was happening culturally. It reminded me that art is this living, breathing thing that’s constantly evolving.
Q: You studied acting in college. How did you prepare to direct?
A: I storyboarded. Me and my DP [director of photography Adam Newport-Berra], we spent two and a half weeks together in London and just watched movies, pulled shots, used his iPhone to kind of block scenes. And then we chose our lenses, picked our colours – we pre-prepped so hard.
I was ready to put the work in. I had paid attention on sets. And also, I devour film – that’s all I do, it’s my favourite activity. I watch movies over and over; I read scripts of my favourite movies while I watch the film at the same time. I knew that if I had the right team around me and if I had prepared the right way, I could accomplish something.
Q: Did you ever have any sense of impostor syndrome?
A: Absolutely. Every day. The first day, I definitely had a moment of wondering, what did I get myself into? And just feeling really overwhelmed and wondering if I could do it. But the great thing about directing is that you’re so busy, you don’t have time to worry that much.
I’m an incredibly heady person. I have an existential crisis probably multiple times a day, thinking about death. I kept on making the joke to myself: I don’t have time to think about death because I’m so busy. And if the film is horrible, it doesn’t matter, because we’re all just going to die, so it’s fine.
Q: In your director’s statement, you talked about the discomfort that women are meant to endure – and then told to smile through. There are discomforting moments in the film. How do you square that?
A: I think my goal was to highlight that tension, to highlight what we women have to juggle, and what it really feels like. Which is why I think I was able to find the comedy and the sadness – they’re all kind of woven into each other. Specifically the scenes where they had to cover up what they were really feeling: Naomi and Adria really had to balance a lot [because] it was also very important that the audience feel and see what they are really feeling. I realised, they’re such great actors – and we’ve been doing this our whole lives as well – that it was like, you guys seem fine. I need you to be a little worse at it so that the audience is in on the experience with you. I had to tell them to act badly so that I could see both sides of the coin.
Q: You and Channing didn’t know each other when you cast him.
A: Chan was the first person I thought of, and then did many rewrites with him in mind once he was on board. He is a producer on the film and signed on quite early. I knew that [his character] Slater King had to be someone that felt charming and comforting and safe.
And his work, Magic Mike, specifically, was an incredibly feminist film. I felt like he would be interested and brave enough to tell this story. Because I believe he is an ally. I was also just so excited to see him as an actor do something we hadn’t seen him do before.
Q: It’s interesting to have a romance blossom out of –
A: The darkest movie of all time? I know. [Laughs] When you watch the film, you see – I have a very dark sense of humour, clearly. So it’s perfect for me.
Q: Your ensemble is sort of subversively cast – like having Geena Davis, who has been outspoken about the dearth of good roles for women and started the Geena Davis Institute to research gender and other disparities in media representation, as the put-upon assistant for a male leader.
A: I wanted it to be people that we somehow feel comfortable with, actors that we have known or have seen in certain lights, so we project what we know about them onto the screen.
It’s also about who wants to do this, who’s actually attracted to this kind of film. It’s like a destination wedding, where like half the people you don’t want to be there anyway, you know? The people who think alike and feel alike kind of find each other.
Q: Your movie’s original title, Pussy Island, caused a stir; you changed it for marketing reasons. How do you feel about it now?
A: I’m almost enjoying even more that so many people bring [it] up and are mourning the loss of it. It’s so comforting that it’s not just me. I really believe that the “Pussy Island” of it all is very much infused into the spirit of the film. Because that was the first thing I wrote down; that was the first thing I wrote on my blank page.
Q: Did you use real or fake snakes?
A: Both. There was a real snake that was not our snake – just a snake that was found that was giant, and everyone freaked out. It was so, like, summer camp.
And [our snake], on one of the days we were shooting, it shed its skin. I just remember that feeling so special. The colours were super vibrant, and it just felt like this really good gift. I still have the snakeskin. I’m weird, I know, but I have it. It came home.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Melena Ryzik
Photographs by: Chantal Anderson
©2024 THE NEW YORK TIMES
The Kiwi actor has been part of the Star Wars universe for more than 20 years.