Zoe Kravitz’s directorial debut, Blink Twice, is all set to release in theatres on August 23, 2024. Starring Channing Tatum and Naomi Ackie in lead roles, the psychological thriller follows the story of Frida (Ackie), a cocktail waitress, and tech billionaire Slater King (Tatum).
The two meet at a fundraising event and Frieda is invited to join Slater and his friends on a luxurious vacation to his private island. Sunny days and wild nights await the group of vacationers, before strange things begin to happen.
Frida soon finds herself in the midst of disturbing discoveries and embarks on a journey to uncover the truth and make it out alive. Ahead of the film’s release, Pinkvilla spoke exclusively to Zoe Kravitz about her first stint as a director and what went behind the making of Blink Twice.
Zoe Kravtiz talks about her first go as a director for Blink Twice
During her exclusive conversation with Pinkvilla, Zoe Kravitz spoke about her journey as a storyteller, stepping behind the camera and the idea behind creating Blink Twice.
“When you’re a kid, you look at things from a very honest perspective. As you grow up, everything becomes a little more gray. Generalized. Romanticized,” she said. “When I turned from a little girl, a fly on the wall, to a woman who lives in these places, I started to understand the true complexity of the game,” Kravitz said.
The Batwoman actress explained how she spoke to women, known and unknown, in a language they all “unfortunately speak fluently, because it’s not safe to say these thoughts out loud. To do so would be breaking the rules of the game.”
Speaking about the idea behind Blink Twice, Kravitz said she wanted to tell a story that explores what happens when women stop playing by the rules.
“What if Eve wakes up and realizes that the Garden of Eden is bullshit. And wait, actually, this place sucks. And wait, Adam, you kinda suck too. And wait… this place is fictional, like a complete Matrix. And wait! Eve is not Eve, Eve is Neo – and girl, eat that apple, follow the serpent, get that bullshit knowledge and get out of there!” she explained.
Zoe Kravitz explains the making of Blink Twice: ‘A story about power’
Moving on to the film’s layers, the actress-turned-director said she realized the most interesting and terrifying way to tell Blink Twice’s story would be to isolate the characters. “Take this ‘garden’ and turn it into an island — like Lord of the Flies,” Kravitz mentioned.
The Big Little Lies alum explained that she began writing in the summer of 2017, “mostly out of disbelief” that no one else had done it yet. However, “there are obviously a lot of stories in a modern setting that explore similar themes, some of which are in my favorite movies,” she explained.
As the actress continued to write her story, a number of horrific events came to light and the entertainment industry was left in shock. “By October of that same year (2017), Harvey Weinstein was exposed — oh my god! The public was starting to face it,” Kravitz recalled, adding how she began to adjust her story to account for “the world that had changed as time went on.”
“By 2020, Jeffrey Epstein had been exposed — I didn’t know anything about him beforehand,” she shared, before adding, “I knew this evil existed in the world and I was horrified and thus motivated to step forward.”
Shortly after, Kravitz clarified that he mentioned the above events to make it clear that his film is not about any particular person. He said, “It’s about people.”
Kravitz added, “Women are being told to smile all the time, every day. We’re expected to ‘forget’ moments of discomfort, fear, and abuse and keep pretending we’re having a good time. We’re expected to play the game.”
The Divergent Series star then revealed that as a true lover and avid fan of cinema, it was important for him to make his directorial debut “honest and entertaining at the same time.”
“I wanted to make a movie that I wanted to see,” she shared. “Let’s explore these moments of discomfort, not seriously, let’s… pause here for a minute — because this shit is wild, and worth seeing,” Kravitz said.
The actress and filmmaker concludes, “Humans are so complex, twisted, funny, beautiful and brutal. We all want power – social, cultural, financial, political. The question is, what will we do to get it? How will you play the game? This is not a story of empowerment. It’s a story of power. That’s it.”
Blink Twice is presented by Amazon MGM Studios and produced by Free Association/This Is Important/ and Bold Choice Productions. Directed by Zoe Kravitz, it stars Christian Slater, Simon Rex, Adria Argiona, Haley Joel Osment, Kyle MacLachlan, Geena Davis and Alia Shawkat, with Channing Tatum and Naomi Ackie.
The film is distributed internationally by Warner Bros. Pictures and will release in cinemas in India only on August 23, 2022.
Also read: Channing Tatum had to explore ‘dark places’ for his psychopath character in Zoe Kravitz’s film Blink Twice
