Zoë Kravitz Writes Her Next Chapter

Oh my god!” exclaimed Zoë Kravitz. She was about to change clothes at the W photo shoot when a brightly colored lizard crawled into a corner of the dressing room. The shoot was happening in a modernist 1970s house high in the canyons of Beverly Hills, and somehow the reptile had decided to visit. “Did he come through the window?” joked Kravitz. She was dressed in a short Saint Laurent cream-colored slipdress, and her hair was slicked back into a tight bun. Although Kravitz is only five feet two, she has a commanding presence and seems taller. She is simultaneously funny, curious, and absolutely certain about her beliefs, on every subject from politics to fashion to art. People close to her were not surprised that she wanted to direct a movie. “Everyone said, ‘You are a control freak, and you’re super bossy—directing is perfect for you,’” Kravitz told me, as she leaned into the carpet where the lizard had been.

Kravitz’s debut film, which she cowrote with E.T. Feigenbaum, is called Blink Twice (the original title was Pussy Island, but that name proved too controversial). It centers on Frida, played by Naomi Ackie, a young woman who falls under the spell of a handsome tycoon played by Channing Tatum, who happens to be Kravitz’s real-life fiancé. He brings Frida and her friend to his private island, which at first seems like a dream come true—the meals are spectacular, the setting is stunning, and the zillionaire has chosen Frida above all other women to be his lover. But almost immediately, bizarre, violent, and mysterious events start taking place.

Kravitz was inspired to write Blink Twice by the Me Too movement, which was shocked into life by the horrific behavior of Harvey Weinstein. “In the summer of 2017, I had come to a place of frustration with society and culture power dynamics,” she explained. “I went home one day after talking to a friend, and I wrote down the original title of the film: Pussy Island. Then—when was it? October, I think, when everything happened with Har—actually, I don’t want to say his name. I don’t want to give him any power.”

Initially, Kravitz wrote a short, stream-of-consciousness story, and that, over four years, morphed into the script. Interestingly, the film still has a kind of surrealist, experimental quality—the distinction between reality and fantasy is often unclear. “This was something that needed to come out,” Kravitz recalled. “I wanted this thriller to be bright and beautiful—so beautiful that it was almost oppressive. I was interested in a world that is seductive and vibrant and then turns into something terrifying. The sun, if you’re in it too long, burns you. If you eat too much, you feel sick. The thing that you think you want can be the thing that destroys you.” And yes, there’s a reptile in the film. “I think this lizard showing up today is a sign,” said Kravitz. “I am going to see this as a lucky thing—the universe sent him.”

Although she’s only 35, there have been many distinct chapters in Kravitz’s life. She’s been through the famous-child phase (her parents are the actor Lisa Bonet and the musician Lenny Kravitz) and the superhero phase (she was both Angel Salvadore, who sprouted beautiful gossamer wings in X-Men: First Class, and a wonderfully sly and sexy Catwoman in The Batman). There was a more-serious-actor time (she starred in the series Big Little Lies and in Kimi, directed by Steven Soderbergh), and there was even a rock star chapter, when she played in her band Elevator Fight. Through it all, Kravitz has always been a fashion icon and a favorite of big-name designers. “I did have one bad moment,” she told me. “I plucked my eyebrows scarily thin. My mom said, ‘If you ever touch your eyebrows again, I will kill you.’ Thank god they grew back.”

As a child, Kravitz was theatrical. “The first movie I fell in love with was Grease,” she said. “I drove everyone crazy with the songs, with leather jackets, talking about Danny Zuko. I would put on shows in my grandmother’s or my mom’s house. I’d perform songs with my cousins. I would cut up little tickets—I’d make the family pay me money! I was like, ‘It’s one dollar to get in.’ They’d say, ‘We live here; this is crazy,’ but they’d give me the dollar.”

Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, one of Kravitz’s close friends, first met her at the Grammys in 2000. “Zoë doesn’t remember this, but it was the first year that I was nominated, and she was sitting in front of us next to her dad and Chevy Chase,” Thompson told me, calling from Berlin, where his band, the Roots, was on tour. “I was sure we were going to lose that night, and the way I coped back then was to repeat ‘We’re not getting anything’ over and over. At that moment, Zoë shot me a strong look, like, ‘Shut the fuck up.’ Zoë doesn’t remember this at all. She says, ‘I was a polite kid and would never do that.’ But at the exact same moment she gave me the look, they announced from the stage, ‘The winner is the Roots!’ We won. And I became instant friends with Zoë Kravitz!”

When Thompson went to an early screening of Blink Twice, he was overwhelmed. “The narrative in my head was, she’s the magic child, but over the years I had seen so much more complexity in Zoë. And when I saw the film, it was a Six Flags roller coaster experience for me. I went from the screening straight to her apartment, and I didn’t care if I woke her up. I may have underestimated Zoë’s power: Seeing her film was like meeting her for the first time. I now think she is going to take the ball further than both her parents combined.”

Part of what intrigued Thompson about Blink Twice was what he viewed as female code-switching. In the movie—as in life—women constantly reinvent themselves. “It was really interesting to write about this living, breathing thing,” Kravitz explained. “We kept on having to adjust and change the relationship of the characters to the world we were depicting.”

As an actor, Ackie instantly saw the parallels between the film’s power dynamics and her own life. “Zoë sent the script when I was quite overwhelmed,” said Ackie. “I was playing Whitney Houston and was completely immersed, but when I heard the title Pussy Island, I knew I had to read the script immediately. We had a Zoom meeting and I said, ‘Please, can I do this movie?!’ I was prepared to do backflips—it was that important to me. And, luckily, Zoë and I share the same interest in questions about power, especially between men and women, and how we navigate that.”

The Blink Twice shoot was fast—around 26 days—and the crew and cast lived together on set in a resort location in Mexico. “We were like this weird, culty summer camp group,” said Kravitz. As always, she had a chic look: “I bought 10 pairs of Patagonia shorts in different colors. I wore dresses sometimes, and I was really into loafers with socks. And hats. My ’fits were pretty cool. I didn’t think about it a lot, but when I looked back, I was like, ‘These are pretty cool.’ ”

At the W set, Kravitz was on her fifth look: a black one-piece bathing suit topped with a loose men’s-style blazer. “I know I should wear high heels with this,” Kravitz said to no one in particular. “If it were up to me, I would be wearing comfortable shoes at all times. I think comfortable shoes are necessary in life.” When Kravitz speaks this way—quietly but authoritatively—it’s easy to see how she would make a great director. (Or, perhaps, the ruler of a nation.)

Throughout the photo shoot, Kravitz was very careful about the image she was projecting. For this chapter of her life, she is not playing an established character like Catwoman or performing with a group. In this moment, she’s trying to get as large an audience as possible to watch, think about, and respond to the ideas in her movie. “Zoë is after nothing less than a galvanizing effect,” Ackie told me. “And I applaud that goal—my family and friends were exhausted after watching Blink Twice, and Zoë loved that. She wants that kind of major reaction.”

As Kravitz meticulously tied and retied a long light blue scarf around her head, I asked her if she had played any particular music during filming. “I was listening to women who I found very powerful,” she said. “A lot of Nina Simone—her intensity!” Kravitz studied her reflection in the mirror. “Who doesn’t like the way Nina Simone sings? She’s an absolute vision.” She patted the scarf on the sides of her head, smoothing down the fabric. “Yeah, I’m really fascinated with people who are so themselves that they don’t have a choice.” Kravitz paused. “People like her, they burn so bright. The way she sees the world, the way she feels things—I think that’s so beautiful.”

Hair by Nikki Nelms at the Only Agency; makeup by Yukari Bush for YSL Beauty; manicure by Betina Goldstein at the Wall Group. Set design by Nicholas Des Jardins at Streeters.

Produced by AP Studio, Inc.; Producer: Anneliese Kristedja; Production Manager: Hayley Stephon; First photography assistant: Zack Forsyth; Photography assistants: Brandon Yee, Essence Moseley, Nick Haaf; Retouching: May Six; Fashion assistants: Tyler VanVranken, Kaley Azambuja, Sage M. McKee; Hair assistant: Ar’tavia Harris; Production assistants: Laicia Bouali, Gigi Rosenfield, Anderson Renno, Tommy Murray, Jeung Bok Holmquist; Set assistant: Josh Puklavetz; Tailor: Irina Tshartaryan at Susie’s Custom Designs, Inc.