By: Elisabeth Sereda
Her mother and grandmother were famous TV actresses, her father is a rock icon, her stepfather a film star. Growing up with Lisa Bonet, Roxie Roker, Lenny Kravitz and Jason Momoa would probably have made a lesser child stay as far away from the entertainment business as a polar bear from the equator. Zoë Kravitz was not intimidated by her family’s collective mega-talent. From her first film at 19, in which her co-star was Jodie Foster, to Catwoman in “The Batman”, heroic roles in “X-Men: First Class” and two of the most critically acclaimed TV series of the last ten years, “Big Little Lies” and “High Fidelity”, as well as a foray into music as a bandleader: she always dared to try something new.
With dad Lenny at the film premiere: Zoë Kravitz
Her campaign for Saint Laurent is currently causing a stir with the erotic short film “Zoë by Purienne”. In it, she is reminiscent of Jane Birkin as she stretches out in front of the camera to Joséphine Baker’s “J’ai Deux Amours”.
Multi-talented
Her latest project is by far her boldest: Zoë Kravitz directs and co-writes Blink Twice (currently in theaters), a psychological thriller in which Channing Tatum plays a tech billionaire who meets cocktail waitress Frida (Naomi Ackie) at his charity gala. He invites her to join him and his friends for a vacation on his private island, where things soon start to go wrong.
At the world premiere in Los Angeles, the shy 36-year-old new director, who doesn’t like to give public speeches, ventured onto the stage and managed to make the audience fall in love with her in a matter of seconds.
Fulminant: der Thriller „Blink Twice“
Her heartwarming tribute to the entire film crew was simultaneously touching and funny: “Thank you for taking the time to make this film. You all worked harder than you were paid for. You all lost sleep and probably your minds on this project. But not one of you rolled your eyes and called me a bitch when I said, ‘We’re not there yet.’ You all said, ‘Yeah, let’s keep going, let’s get there.’ And we did.”
In love, engaged
Special praise went to her leading man, who became her boyfriend and then her fiancé during the course of filming: “Channing, from producing to performing, from the pep talks to holding my head or my feet while I cried on the bathroom floor because I thought I had messed everything up: thank you for letting me be a total, obsessive psycho control freak. Thank you for your patience,” she said.
And continued: “Thank you for trusting me to let a woman direct you. It’s really, really cool to make a movie, but when you can do it with the love of your life, it’s even cooler.”
Tatum, who is not only known for his comedic talent (“Magic Mike,” “Lost City”) but is also considered one of the nicest, most courteous and professional actors of his generation, had never met his director and future wife in person before the film.
Pussy Island
“Riley Keough sent me a text saying, ‘Hey, my friend Zoë wants to send you a script.’ I thought, ‘Great, I love Zoë as an actress, I’d love to act with her. I didn’t know she wanted to direct this project,” Tatum said. “The original title of the film was ‘Pussy Island,’ and I thought, ‘Okay, Zoë Kravitz is sending me something called ‘Pussy Island,’ I should probably read it.'”
Producer
Kravitz took on her first supervisory role after seeing her colleagues Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon in the producer role on “Big Little Lies,” which she then took on on the series “High Fidelity”: “I was very heavily involved, was there from the beginning, even before the series was written,” says Kravitz: “I gave my two cents on the setting, the choice of music, the cast and the characters.”
She thinks it is wrong that many of her acting colleagues demand to be named as producer in the credits out of pure vanity: “I have my fingers in all aspects, because that is the only way the whole thing has any value.”
Fescher Billionaire: Channing Tatum in “Blink Twice”
Channing Tatum says of her directing work: “She’s just an obsessive person, in the best sense of the word. She doesn’t just care about what the final product looks like or how the actors play their roles – she has everything under control from A to Z, she just never gives up. That impressed me more than anything else.”
Her father Lenny Kravitz never doubted her: “I made her feel that she was unique. I am so proud of her. And not just because she is successful. She is a wonderful person and I would love her even if she wasn’t my daughter. She is just a cool person who follows her own instincts.” The positive reactions to her first film prove him right.
Family: Zoë Kravitz, born in 1988 in Los Angeles, comes from a famous family: her father is the musician Lenny Kravitz, her mother the actress Lisa Bonet. At the age of eleven, Kravitz moved to Miami and lived with her father
Career: In 2007, Zoë Kravitz began appearing in films and series. She played
u. a. in „X-Men: Erste Entscheidung“ (2011), „Mad Max: Fury Road“ (2015), „Girls Night Out“(2017), „The Batman“ (2022)
Directorial debut: The psychological thriller “Blink Twice” – currently in cinemas – is Kravitz’s directorial debut. Channing Tatum plays a shady tech billionaire
