Zoë Kravitz Daily

Zoë Kravitz survived a potentially career-ending mushroom trip on the first season of The Studio, but she almost didn’t make it out of a stay at Taylor Swift‘s house without destroying the joint in a mad panic. The actress/director stopped by Late Night With Seth Meyers on Tuesday night (Aug. 12) to share a hilariously harrowing story about the time her mom Lisa Bonet’s adorable pet snake almost caused an A-list incident.
Kravitz said Swift had generously invited the mother-daughter duo to stay in her home during the evacuations caused by the L.A. wildfires in January. “My mom lives in Topanga Canyon, so I said, ‘No, that’s a dangerous place to be. Come [here].’ And my mom has a pet snake, and so she has her evacuation stuff; she came over with the snake,” Kravitz said. “We ended up having to stay there for maybe about two weeks, and Taylor has this very beautiful house. I think it’s from the ’30s, like it’s a beautiful house, something you want to preserve and take care of.”
One way to take cover of such a jem is to not lose your reptile in it. But, as the pair were getting ready to leave on their last day and the Blink Twice director was packing up her things, Kravitz told her mom that she really wanted to “be a good house guest. I like to leave places better than I found them. I don’t want her [Swift] to even know we were here.’ So I was kind of going around and cleaning up, and I’m downstairs and she’s upstairs and my phone rings and it’s my mom.”

Uh oh.

It was Bonet and her voice was “super high,” which made Kravitz think something was amiss. “And she’s like, ‘I’m in a little bit of a pickle. Can you come upstairs?’” Kravitz said. That’s when she learned that Bonet’s pet snake, Orpheus, had found “this little hole in the corner” of the room to hide in.

Turns out the snake crawled into a hole next to a banquette built into the wall and while Bonet was able to get a hold of the snake’s tail, “they’re all muscle, they’re very, very strong, so she’s holding the snake’s tail. We don’t know what to do.” Kravitz said she started to panic as the snake crawled further and further into the hole.

“It’s like that scene in Jurassic Park when they’re in the car and the branches breaking every time they move,” Kravitz said. “I was panicking so much that my mom likes to say, ‘If I had both hands, I would have slapped you.’” They were saved by the house manager, who showed up with a crowbar to tear apart the banquette so they could reach the snake, adding that they were “ripping up the tile, we’re scratching the walls.”

In the end, she said, “we completely destroyed Taylor’s bathroom, and there was just this moment where I was like, ‘either we destroy her bathroom or I have to tell her that there’s a snake somewhere in her house,’” explained Kravitz, with Meyers saying they were “both bad options.” They did end up destroying the bathroom, with Meyers holding up a pic of the aftermath, with cabinets torn apart and Bonet and Kravitz laying on the floor, head-to-head, holding on to the snake with all their might.

Kravitz said she assured the house manager that she would pay for the damages, asking him to not say anything until was all fixed. “And I remember calling her [Swift] and saying, ‘Hey — also very high voice — I wanted to talk to you about something,’ and she was like, ‘Is it the fact that you almost lost a stake in our house and destroyed my bathroom?,’” Kravitz said.
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As Zoë Kravitz makes her feature directorial debut, she’s receiving rave reviews from her cast, including boyfriend Channing Tatum.

The Blink Twice star praised Kravitz for co-writing and helming the psychological thriller, reasoning that directing was “always what she was supposed to do,” after working together on the film in Yucatán, Mexico back in 2022.

“It was okay, it was alright,” he joked to Consequence about working with Kravitz. “She’s obsessed with stories in movies — specifically movies. Like, we don’t do very much other than just watch movies. To get to be around someone that is so in love with it, that it consumes their whole life… It is who they are. This isn’t just like, ‘Oh, I want to see if I can direct a movie.’ This has always been the plan.
“I don’t even know if it was a plan. I think it was just something that she had to admit — that this is always what she was supposed to do. Because she loves it that much,” added Tatum.

Co-written by Kravitz and E.T. Feigenbaum, Blink Twice stars Naomi Ackie as cocktail waitress Frida, who becomes infatuated with tech billionaire Slater King (Tatum) and joins him on a trip to his private island, where strange things begin to happen. Premiering Friday, the movie also stars Alia Shawkat, Haley Joel Osment, Simon Rex, Geena Davis, Kyle MacLachlan, Christian Slater and Adria Arjona.
“I knew it was going to be hard, but not that hard,” said Kravitz about her first time in the director’s chair. “It’s so, so hard and I felt the need to stay creative in a crisis, because it’s almost all solutions — because everything is constantly going wrong. And sometimes when things aren’t going the way they’re supposed to, you can get upset and then you shut down and then you’re just not open-hearted and you’re not creative.”

Kravitz added, “I did find that when things did go wrong, if you stay creative and engaged, it’s almost always leading you towards what actually was always meant to be.”

Zoë Kravitz is ready to make a splash with her directorial debut, even if audiences might not be.

While discussing her upcoming thriller Blink Twice, which premieres August 23, Kravitz reflected on the movie’s original title, Pussy Island, and why they ultimately had to come up with a new one.

“It was made very clear to me that ‘p—y’ is a word that we, our society, are not ready to embrace yet,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “There were a lot of roadblocks along the way, whether it be the MPAA not wanting to put it on a poster, or a billboard, or a kiosk; movie theaters not wanting to put it on a ticket.”
Kravitz explained that her intention was to “reclaim the word, and not make it something that we’re so uncomfortable using,” but she ultimately found that “women were offended by the word, and women seeing the title were saying, ‘I don’t want to see that movie.’”

“But we’re not there yet,” she continued. “And I think that’s something I have the responsibility as a filmmaker to listen to. I care about people seeing the film, and I care about how it makes people feel.”
When Kravitz’s announced her directorial debut in 2021, she told Deadline that “the title means a lot of things,” adding: “I started writing this story in 2017. As a woman in general, and a woman in this industry, I’ve experienced some pretty wild behavior from the opposite sex.

“The title was kind of a joke at first, this place where people would go, bring women, party and hang out. The story evolved into something else, but the title wound up having multiple meanings. And it alludes to this time and place we claim to not be in anymore, in terms of sexual politics,” Kravitz explained. “People are evolving and changing but there is still a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths from past behavior. It’s a nod to that, but it’s also playful, and a really playful film in a lot of ways. I like that the title leads with that and has some heavy meaning beneath it.”

Although Kravitz told EW that the original title remains “the seed of the film, and the spirit of what that means to me is still alive and very much present in the film,” she clarified, “I love the new title. I’m happy with the new title. I think everything happens for a reason, and I think it actually really focuses the movie in a great way. And I think that was always the way it was meant to be.”

Blink Twice stars Naomie Ackie as Frida, a young, clever, Los Angeles cocktail waitress who has her eyes set on the prize: philanthropist and tech mogul Slater King (Channing Tatum). When she skillfully maneuvers her way into King’s inner circle and ultimately an intimate gathering on his private island, she is ready for a journey of a lifetime. Despite the epic setting, beautiful people, ever-flowing champagne and late-night dance parties, Frida can sense that there’s more to this island than meets the eye. Something she can’t quite put her finger on. Something terrifying.

Co-written by Kravitz and E.T. Feigenbaum, Blink Twice also stars Christian Slater, Simon Rex, Adria Arjona, Kyle MacLachlan, Haley Joel Osment, Geena Davis, Alia Shawkat and Levon Hawke.
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Zoë Kravitz’s feature directorial debut, the suspense thriller Blink Twice (formerly known as Pussy Island), is getting a global theatrical release from Amazon MGM Studios. It will hit cinemas August 23.

In the movie, written by Kravitz and E.T. Feigenbaum, tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum) meets cocktail waitress Frida (Naomi Ackie) at his fundraising gala, and sparks fly. He invites her to join him and his friends on a dream vacation on his private island. It’s paradise. Wild nights blend into sun-soaked days and everyone’s having a great time. No one wants this trip to end, but as strange things start to happen, Frida begins to question her reality. There is something wrong with this place. She’ll have to uncover the truth if she wants to make it out of this party alive.
Pic also stars Alia Shawkat, Simon Rex, Adria Arjona, Haley Joel Osment, Christian Slater, Kyle MacLachlan and Geena Davis. Producers are Bruce Cohen, Tiffany Persons, Garret Levitz and Kravitz. The movie was made in conjunction with Free Association, this is important, and Bold Choices.
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Before her directorial debut Blink Twice bows next month, Zoë Kravitz looks to be making plans for her next acting job as she is in talks to join Austin Butler in Darren Aronofsky’s crime thriller Caught Stealing for Sony Pictures. Aronofsky will direct direct the pic, which is based on the book by Charlie Huston. The script will be written by Huston, with Protozoa producing.

The film follows Hank Thompson, a burned-out former baseball player, as he’s unwittingly plunged into a wild fight for survival in the downtown criminal underworld of ‘90s New York City. It is unknown who Kravitz will play.
On the acting side, Kravitz is coming off as playing Selina Kyle aka Catwoman opposite Robert Pattinson in The Batman. She has since been working on her Blink Twice, which she also wrote and produced and is gaining buzz following the release of its first trailer. The Amazon MGM Studios pic stars Naomi Ackie and Channing Tatum and bows on August 23.

Aronofsky is one of many acclaimed filmmakers currently working with Sony Pictures, a list that includes Sam Mendes, who is directing and producing the story of The Beatles with four distinct theatrical feature films; Taika Waititi, who directed Klara and the Sun; Danny Boyle, who is in production on 28 Years Later; Kogonada, who is in post-production on A Big Bold Beautiful Journey; and Jason Reitman, who is in post-production on SNL 1975.

Kravitz is repped by CAA, Untitled Entertainment and attorney Bill Sobel at Edelstein, Laird & Sobel.
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Zoë Kravitz (The Batman) has signed on to star in Biter, a new dark comedy based on the short story by Cat Person‘s Kristen Roupenian. Kravitz will also produce via her company This Is Important, with Paperclip Ltd and Winterlight Pictures co-producing.

Part of Roupenian’s debut short story collection You Know You Want This published in 2019, which Winterlight brought to Kravitz and Paperclip, “Biter” tells the story of a young woman who fantasizes about biting one of her co-workers.
Kravitz comes to the project after wrapping production on her directorial debut Pussy Island — a thriller she co-wrote starring Naomi Ackie and Channing Tatum, which was acquired by MGM in a competitive situation. The project also builds momentum for Roupenian, who saw a Susanna Fogel-directed adaptation of her viral New Yorker short story Cat Person premiere to much buzz and discussion at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. A writer and director for Biter have not yet been attached.

“As an IP-driven company, short story-based projects have become a huge part of our slate. There is nobody who has broken out in the world of short stories quite like Kristen Roupenian,” Winterlight Pictures founder Chris Goldberg told Deadline. “We are so proud to be working with such an exceptional talent and voice of her generation. We were also blown away by Zoë Kravitz in Kimi and The Batman, and could not be more excited to collaborate with someone so multi-talented and quickly emerging as one of the world’s biggest movie stars.”

“Our team at Paperclip Ltd is excited to work with incredible talents Zoë and Kristen in front of and behind the camera on this thrilling narrative, and Chris and the team at Winterlight are ideal creative partners,” added company founders Yeardley Smith and Ben Cornwell.

Kravitz most recently starred as Selina Kyle (aka Catwoman) in Matt Reeves‘ Warner Bros blockbuster The Batman, which was nominated for three Oscars and grossed over $770 million worldwide. She also recently led Steven Soderbergh’s surveillance thriller Kimi for New Line/HBO Max as well as Hulu’s series High Fidelity, based on the classic Nick Hornby novel. Named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People of 2022, Kravitz was previously a core cast member of HBO’s Emmy-winning Big Little Lies, based on the novel by Liane Moriarty.

Roupenian’s short story “Cat Person” is a darkly comedic thriller that looks at the brief relationship between 20-year-old college sophomore Margot and the somewhat-older Robert from the perspective of both characters, as a means of commenting on modern dating and power dynamics. Michelle Ashford adapted the script for the film version, which stars CODA‘s Emilia Jones and Succession‘s Nicholas Braun. Roupenian also penned the story for Halina Reijn’s hit A24 pic Bodies Bodies Bodies, has multiple other features in development, and is currently at work on a novel.

Founded in 2014 by Smith and Cornwell, Paperclip’s film portfolio includes the thrillers Possessions and Alone, the GLAAD Media Award-nominated drama Gossamer Folds, Who Are You People and John Hyams’ SXSW Audience Award winner All Square with House of Cards’ Michael Kelly, Pamela Adlon and more.

Winterlight is also producing an adaptation of Nita Prose’s No. 1 New York Times bestseller The Maid which has been set up at Universal, along with many more IP-driven projects for film and TV. The company has notably collaborated with authors on a number of short story-based projects including Duane Swierczynski, whose story “Lush” is set up at Lionsgate, and Christian Cantrell, who has taken a story to MRC. Also among those authors is Goldberg, who has a feature based on one of his short stories in development at Netflix.

Kravitz is repped by CAA, Untitled Entertainment and Edelstein, Laird & Sobel; and Roupenian by CAA, Range Media Partners and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.

Discover the fragrance that reminds the actress and face of YSL Beauty of her famous mom, and how she responds to being asked to take her braids out.
I’m in the trendy area of East London—Shoreditch, to be exact—arguably the perfect place to interview Zoë Kravitz, the connoisseur of cool. I enter a palatial suite in the Nobu Hotel. The room is clean and minimalistic, but still edgy, featuring a floating chair that looks more like a work of art than actual seating. To the left, my eyes fall on Kravitz. With her legs perfectly crossed and one hand laid gently on top of the other, as they both rest on her knee, she peers at me and smiles. It lightens up the room.

She begins to fuss with her bangs. Her glam team immediately interjects. They do a little zhuzhing, but it fixes nothing—they were already perfect. I sit across from Kravitz and she proceeds to give me her full attention, as if there are not five other people in the room. I get slightly nervous by the onlookers, but I can tell she’s used to this. After all, she was literally born into this—arguably having two of the hottest people in Hollywood (Lisa Bonet and Lenny Kravitz) as her parents.

We’re here to celebrate YSL Beauty’s heritage and newest fragrance, Black Opium Le Parfum. Kravitz has been the face of the brand since 2017. Through this partnership, YSL Beauty has conveyed its desire to reach a younger, edgier, more Kravitz-esque audience to the masses. The actress has grown with the company, beginning in her late 20s, now on the brink of her mid-30s, but YSL has grown too. “YSL has been so wonderful in terms of getting to know me and allowing me to me be,” Kravitz says. “It feels effortless because I don’t have to transform into something that I’m not to represent the brand.”

It seems as if YSL Beauty is undergoing a transformation of its own. Historically, the luxury, high-fashion brand wasn’t accessible to the fashionable youth, but through YSL Beauty, it’s reaching a whole new audience. Its suite of products currently speak directly to the Gen-Z and young millennial demographics, who want dewy skin and items that look good and are good for the complexion. “I think it’s going in a really beautiful direction,” Kravitz adds, referencing the Nu Lip & Cheek Balmy Tint with Hyaluronic Acid that I’m wearing, and how it’s not a product I expected from the brand. “They’re branching out—getting, younger and fresher. Even the colors are changing, and it’s exciting.” We proceed to rave over the new shade extensions for its widely coveted Rouge Volupté Shine Lipstick Balm.
The Black Opium Le Parfum is synergistic with Kravitz: a warm and spicy presence that mesmerizes the senses. For those who are familiar, the aroma is a more intense version of the Black Opium Eau de Parfum. I begin to think more about scents and wonder if a particular one reminds her of her mother. “Yeah—nagchampa,” Kravitz reveals of the incense that’s often burned to encourage a sacred space and meditative environment. “She’s always burning it in the house.” Nagchampa is made from a magnolia flower, sandalwood, and halmaddi, a tree resin. Combined, it has a sweet, musky scent.

As I continue to sit with Kravitz in the large hotel room, she seems to relax more and more with each passing minute. We bond over being Black women, and it feels more like a friend catch-up than an interview. She shares the contact information for her hair braider with me (yes, the one that gives her those iconic microbraids), what scents remind her of her famous mother, and, despite all these years in the industry, how she remains authentically herself.

People say “like mother, like daughter.” In what ways are you like your mother? How do the two of you differ?
My mother and I are very similar people. We have a similar sense of humor, and we are both not great at pretending—meaning, if we’re not feeling you, we can’t hide it. I’m a lot more social than my mother. She’s definitely a homebody. She lives away from the city and I love to be in cities and to be around people—that’s where we differ the most.

How do you manage to consistently show up as authentically yourself in an industry known for projecting its own standards?
I have moments where I stray, or I do something that’s not authentically me. And I immediately feel it, and it feels icky. I feel depleted when I’m spending energy trying to be something that I’m not, and trying to fit into a box that I don’t fit into. So it affects every part of me when I don’t feel like I’m being myself. It affects my competence and it affects the way I’m able to communicate and connect with people.

You’ve become known for your braided hairstyles. In recent years, we’ve seen more braids on the red carpet, but you’ve been wearing braids—particularly your microbraids—long before it was trendy. Have you ever felt any pushback or discrimination for your hair in Hollywood?
[Pre-George Floyd], I was constantly just fighting [about my hair] and being asked to change it. I would do a shoot, and this still happens to be honest, where they’ll say, “Can you take your braids out? Because we want to do something else.” And I always reply, “Pretend this is the way it grows out of my head. You don’t ask people that have long blonde hair to change their hair every time they do a shoot.” It’s interesting that I’m often asked to pop them braids out. Do you know how long this takes? And it’s also the way I wear my hair.

What is the longest you have ever sat to get your hair braided?
Twelve to 15 hours, something crazy like that. The key is to have to braiders at a time. But you know what’s funny, I now kind of like it. It’s almost like being sick. Having the excuse to just—I stay home, I watch films, I smoke weed, and I just get my hair done. It’s actually a great excuse to not have to do anything, and it’s great.
There has been a lot of talk about how the entertainment industry mistreats Black women. How has it changed in positive ways, and where would you like to see improvement?
I think there’s more of a consciousness around making sure that Black women, Black people, get to be a part of stories that go beyond stories about being Black, and then also finding ways to bring that truth into a story. For a long time, it was about being—if it was a Black woman, with a white man, it was about that, you know what I mean? It couldn’t just be a love story between two people. I think that’s really exciting. And ways I would like [the industry] to continue to grow—I want more Black directors. I want more Black female directors. In terms of telling our story, I would be excited to work with more Black female directors. So let’s make more room for that.

The Black Opium perfume bottle has been compared to a black vinyl couture dress designed by Yves Saint Laurent. What are some of your favorite looks that have come to life on the red carpet?
Anthony [Vaccarello, creative director of Saint Laurent] is a wonderful collaborator. He’s made me some of my favorite dresses, because we really get to work on things together. I love some of the things he made for the Batman press tour. This one dress for the London premiere that had these cut-outs, which was sexy and beautiful; and then we made that crystal see-through dress for the Met Gala a few years ago, and that was crazy. I love working with Anthony.

When do you feel that your light shines the brightest?
My light shines the brightest when I’m with people who love me and know me for me. When I feel safe to be myself and not really second-guessed. When I’m being creative—you know, in some kind of creative zone, I think that sparks something in me. I love when I’m acting or if I’m directing or if I’m writing and I’m really in that focused place. That’s where I’m turned on.

What sparks your creativity?
It’s the zone where something really captures all of you, gets all of your attention, and everything else kind of melts away, and all that matters is this thing that you’re working on that you care about. Whether it’s a character or directing or whatever it is—I think it’s just something that captures all of your attention and you give everything to that. It’s such a beautiful feeling.
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