I haven’t gotten a chance to talk about Blink Twice, the film Zoe Kravitz wrote and directed. It came out last year and I ended up renting it. I was genuinely impressed with it – it was Zoe’s directorial debut, and it was confident and bold and she got great performances out of her ensemble, especially Naomi Ackie and Channing Tatum. While the ending didn’t make much sense, I would recommend it, it’s well worth a viewing. Well, Zoe covers the latest issue of Elle and while she’s got other acting gigs coming up in 2025, this interview is mostly about Blink Twice. I’ll say it – she deserves more credit for what she did there, and I don’t mind that she’s still talking about it.

She feels at peace in NYC: “I feel like I’m part of something when I’m here. Some people find it chaotic, but I find it calming, and I find myself fed by the energy of the city. This is a place where I can be alone, but not feel alone. It’s an incredibly special place, and I find it really inspiring. It’s not as segregated as other cities, and you’re around really different kinds of people, with different kinds of interests. Even the sound. And people go, ‘It’s noisy.’ I’m like, ‘I find it comforting.’” She likes Brooklyn’s Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, too, but not the fact that it’s in a mall: “I’m always a little stoned when I go to the movies.”

She doesn’t like the vibe in LA: “You have to make a plan and no one wants to go because there’s traffic, and then after the dinner’s done, you have to call it a night. You can’t just walk and see where the day takes you, and that’s one of my favorite things about living here [in NYC].”

Blink Twice & the abuse of power. “It’s been really interesting to see the way that it’s become very timely, but it’s based on my observation of power dynamics in general. I find it important to say that, not to be politically correct, but I feel like we’re letting ourselves off the hook a little too easily by trying to make this about three people. I’m like, ‘Yes, people with power abuse it. This is a thing. It happens all the time. It’s still happening. And it’s not about these one or two or three people that you think it’s about, it’s about everybody.’

What Blink Twice is really about: “People focused a lot on the island, or the party part, or the billionaires part, but those were just devices to tell the story. It’s really about power dynamics and having to pretend like you’re okay when you’re not, because you’re fearful of losing your life or your job or whatever…I really wanted to highlight [trauma] in the story, so that maybe people could understand how emotionally draining it is for women, specifically, to have to pretend like we’re okay all the time.”

Directing a film is like being a parent: “I don’t have any children, but I would imagine having a child is similar: No one can prepare you for that. You have to just do it, and see what kind of parent you are and how you deal with it. And then as a director with my actors, you realize that not all your children are the same, and that you have to speak to them differently. Everyone learns differently. Everyone hears things differently. Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses and insecurities, and you have to learn how to support them and what they need to hear. Some actors really need to hear ‘Good job’ after a take. Some actors don’t care. It’s really understanding that.”

Whether splitting with Channing Tatum affects how she thinks of the film: “Not at all. I love this thing that we made together, and I care for him very much. Even when you bring up how great his performance is, it warms my heart to hear that, and I’m so happy that all of it happened. I just feel so grateful that we got to go on that journey together. He has so much more coming, and I think he’s in a place as an actor where he’s feeling really confident and people are seeing different sides of him. He’s got a lot to offer, so I’m excited for people to keep witnessing that.”

[From Elle]

The Channing stuff… like, she got a really great performance out of Channing, and they were together for years. They were engaged! I still believe that she left her first husband for Channing! I also sort of believe the very vague rumors that something might have happened between Zoe and Austin Butler while they filmed Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing, because the timeline adds up. Anyway, I hope Channing is okay and I hope Zoe gets funding to direct another movie. Also: I think the NYC-vs-LA debate is more about cars than people want to admit. People who love driving and being able to hop in a car and get things done prefer LA. People who aren’t car-obsessed prefer New York.

Cover courtesy of Elle, additional photos courtesy of Avalon Red.