Zoë Kravitz Detailed How Her Movie 'Blink Twice' Was Inspired by This Major Frustration in Hollywood

Inspiration can come from all kinds of places. From a place you visited on vacation to an emotion you felt, it can blossom in just about every way, be it negative or positive. For Zoë Kravitz and her new movie Blink Twice, the idea for the script began by observing one of her biggest frustrations in Hollywood (let alone society).

“In the summer of 2017, I had come to a place of frustration with society and culture power dynamics,” Kravitz, who made her directorial debut in Blink Twice, told W Magazine. “I went home one day after talking to a friend, and I wrote down the original title of the film: Pussy Island.”

A few months later, when the allegations against former media producer Harvey Weinstein came to light, Kravitz felt the urge to tell a story about gender imbalances, sexism and abuse of power. “Then—when was it? October, I think, when everything happened with Har—actually, I don’t want to say his name. I don’t want to give him any power,” she said.

“This was something that needed to come out,” Kravitz said.

Blink Twice tells the story of cocktail waitress Frida (Naomi Ackie) as she meets tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum) and joins him on what seems to be a dream vacation on his private island. Once she’s there, however, strange things start to happen, and her life soon begins to lie in the balance.

“I wanted this thriller to be bright and beautiful—so beautiful that it was almost oppressive,” Kravitz said of her vision. “I was interested in a world that is seductive and vibrant and then turns into something terrifying. The sun, if you’re in it too long, burns you. If you eat too much, you feel sick. The thing that you think you want can be the thing that destroys you.”

Looking back, Kravitz told The New York Times that telling Frida’s timely story was eye-opening for her as an artist. “It was really interesting having to rewrite the story based off what was happening culturally,” she told the outlet. “It reminded me that art is this living, breathing thing that’s constantly evolving.”

Blink Twice is in theaters now.