Zoë Kravitz’s Blink Twice began life as a “fever dream novella” that she worked on throughout the years with co-writer E.T. Feigenbaum, who would then become her showrunner on the criminally underrated series High Fidelity. After that series came to an abrupt end, they re-upped their efforts to bring her directorial debut to the screen with Kravitz assembling a starry ensemble led by Naomi Ackie and Channing Tatum. Ackie plays Frida, a nail artist and waitress who, along with friend Jess (Alia Shawkat), seizes the opportunity to make the acquaintance of notorious tech billionaire Slater King (Tatum). They accept an invitation to his private island alongside a fun-loving crew of misfits only to discover that there is a rot in the luxurious hacienda’s foundation. Kravitz’s satirical thriller distinguishes her as just as compelling a talent behind that camera as she is in front of it. She spoke to LWLies about how being inspired by collaborators and how the cruelty of the world around her led to one of the year’s most beautiful nightmares.
LWLies: This is the end of a really long road for you, right? What were the elements that remained throughout the process of making Blink Twice?
Kravitz: Summer 2017 is when I started to write this film. The themes of power stayed the same, but the characters were different. The original version of Frida was much closer to my perspective. It was more Jess who wanted to go and to meet Slater King and Frida was kind of pulled along on this ride. Then the more we wrote the more we realised it was a much more interesting arc for Frida if she was the one that was so enamoured with the world. If she was the driving force of the story. I was also interested in playing with the metaphor of the Garden of Eden but we weren’t really sure how to make it work. A lot came once Eric and I started writing together and post 2017 a lot of information was coming out into the world that shifted the dialogue a little bit too. We had to change a lot of the behaviour of certain characters to be a lot more outward. Once Me Too and Time’s Up became a real conversation we had to change elements of the environment these characters were living in.
It is such an interesting parallel to what’s happened where there was an awareness of these abusive figures, but you were operating inside an industry where people were silent.
Yep. And so that concept, because it wasn’t being talked about at the time, is where this came from. Me trying to find a way to express what it feels like to be asked as a woman to forget and pretend to feel safe. I’m trying to find a way to really express how absurd it is.
In the years that passed did any of the directors you worked with change your approach to it?
Not my approach. I have always wanted to direct, and I’ve been incredibly lucky to work with very talented directors. I think I learned from them and I’m inspired by them, specifically working with people like Matt Reeves and Steven Soderbergh so close to shooting too. Matt is just so meticulous and I’m like that and it was really comforting to me to meet someone else who cares about the details. Often artists and specifically women can be made to feel difficult for caring about the small things.
Did you have any kind of pushback in terms of being asked to lose details you cared about or to soften it in some ways?
A little bit. Some things ended up changing like the original title, Pussy Island, which I think ultimately was the right choice.
I prefer Blink Twice to be honest.
I do too. Things like that often lead you to the right thing, but definitely, there were some of the more intense scenes I would get notes about. And we’re living in a really interesting time right now where people might not like something or feel uncomfortable when the truth is you’re not supposed to like every moment of this story. That’s the emotional rollercoaster you’re going on.
I guess a big question is where you draw the line. Kerry James Marshall’s art does not have any trauma against black bodies happening in it. Chinonye Chukwu with Till would only show the aftermath of violence. Yet Barry Jenkins chooses to show lynchings. What boundaries do you have?
For me it’s a balance. I think it’s important to be effective but I don’t want to traumatise my audience or my actors and specifically with some of the more violent or difficult scenes, I wanted to make something that made people lean forward instead of lean back. And so, we found a really great balance where people understand the gravity of what we’re trying to say and still be entertained and still being on the character’s side and rooting for them when things get bloody. But in the film in general, there’s a layer of magical realism. So we’re not necessarily in the real world, which is helpful, but there’s also no nudity. The most graphic scene is also actually just sitting in a moment, which is also one of the longer shots. All the scenes are very short but at that point, I wanted to sit in that moment and let it be long on purpose, so that was what was more important to me was actually the length of the shot.
The particular place is fascinating. It is beautiful, but in my notes, I kept writing down ‘Overlook Hotel’ because it also has that element of the uncanny.
That was my reference and that was why I chose that place. We looked at a bunch of different haciendas. When you think of a billionaire’s island people think of it as very modern and very crisp. And so I wanted to surprise the audience with what they see. I wanted it to be cosy, a place that we all wanted to be and feel comfortable in but that you immediately recognize with one image. And this place is so specific looking that like the Overlook Hotel it almost is a character on its own.
It’s gorgeous but the way that you’ve shot it you can’t fully get your bearings, which is so Kubrick.
That wasn’t fully intentional at first. Obviously, we took lots of liberties, but there were still certain things during editing that I had trouble with. I knew what direction things were and I realised I had to really let go of that in order to be truly free and I ended up reordering a lot. The incredible gift of everyone wearing the same thing every day is that you can move anything anywhere in post. But it’s so funny to make it so the pool doesn’t make sense. At one point this is to the left and in another scene it is to the right. I realised how much scarier it was to really mess with the audience’s mind in that way and have it be this trap you can’t get out of.
Naomi is absolutely phenomenal in this. She told me she didn’t technically audition. She just started talking to you about the scenes and then presumed that she had the role.
Which she did! When I spoke to her the first time she just got it. She understood the world and the tone and the characters so clearly even though it was a juggling act for her. In one moment she’s manipulative then innocent then terrified then she’s doing comedy. It’s a difficult role, but Naomi Ackie needs very little direction. I would give her one note and I would just see her brain go. That was it. She also has, I think, one of the most incredible faces I’ve ever seen, which is why there are so many close-ups of her in the movie. She’s so intelligent and her talent just oozes out of her and, as a first-time director, she made my job much easier.
The unkind cliché about actors turned writer/directors is that they’ll write the sort of role they want to do, so even if they aren’t in it, there is still a version of them. But I didn’t get a sense of that at all – this felt very much for Naomi.
I’m glad that you feel that way as that was important to me. Originally Frida was much closer to me and the more I wrote and when I decided I wanted to direct it freed me of thinking about myself and I was really able to write a delicious character for somebody else. It is important to me as a filmmaker to write roles for women and specifically women of colour that I don’t see a lot and there’s something very important about the relationship between a director and an actor, because I think I’m able to see certain things about Naomi that she can’t see about herself and celebrate them.
What’s the key to also casting the entire ensemble?
When I was writing, at one point I went on a vacation with a group of friends and we were having a great time. And I realised that was the key to the movie. What if in this moment I realised that this trip I was having with my friends wasn’t what I thought it was and the rug was pulled from under me? With the actors, the kinds of people who were attracted to the roles understood what I was trying to do and that helped weed out who was meant to be a part of the project and who wasn’t.
“There’s electricity throughout the first two acts of the film, but it’s all about patience.”
It must be very edifying that Geena Davis came on board?
Especially Geena! With the film and what it’s about she’s been a pioneer in this industry. So the fact that she wanted to do it was incredibly validating. That what we were trying to say was coming across and had purpose and meaning.
It’s your editor’s Kathryn J Schubert’s first feature as well. Why not just go with the most experienced people to lean on when you are making your debut?
I really tried to listen to what they’d bring. I knew I wanted a female editor but then Kathryn and I had our conversation and I was trying to explain what I was seeing in my mind, and how I wanted to start slow and then accelerate and get faster and faster, and talking about sensory memory and how we process and remember things and really wanting to tune into that. Creatively, when you click with someone that way, it’s very special. And it’s not about whether they’ve made a million movies, it’s that we are speaking the same language, and that’s what I’m looking for.
What do you think is the key to creating the tone and the dread that permeates so much of the film?
The Shining is a big reference for me obviously. That feeling of dread in The Shining specifically where you actually know what’s going to happen. We don’t tell you but you know you’re watching a thriller and from the first frame, the sound design and the lizard tell the audience something is wrong. But it’s also about enough little crumbs of something being off, but waiting long enough to reveal what when the audience almost goes past the threshold. The audience starts to feel uncomfortable because you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop, you know that this is all going too well. And in terms of movie structure, a lot of people might tell you not to do that but I’m trusting the audience will be patient. And in the editing process too, that was definitely something we had to find and ask how long can we really string this out before it becomes boring? I think that we found the right amount of time and the right amount of tension so that it never becomes flat. There’s electricity throughout the first two acts of the film, but it’s all about patience. It’s about making people work for it.
Coming up we’ve got acting projects announced for you, but do you intend to direct again soon?
This is what I’ve always wanted to do. And I love acting, I’ll always act and serve great directors and great stories. I love film and I want to participate and contribute to the film community as much as I can but writing and directing is what I hope to mostly do eventually.
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