(Photo Credit: PR Photos)
Zoe Kravitz has launched a creative collective with her fellow Hollywood artists (actors, writers, directors), and they vow to meet weekly to craft a script that perfectly represents the diverse world in which we live. The daughter of musician Lenny Kravitz and actress Lisa Bonet says she wants to lead the change in the call for diversity which ignited from the #OscarsSoWhite controversy.
“I love the fact that there’s such an open dialogue right now about women in Hollywood and black women and black men in Hollywood and everything in between. Now it’s about us bringing the change,” Kravitz said in a recent interview. “We started the dialogue but I don’t expect any man to write a script that speaks for me. I don’t expect any man to write a script for me. I think we need to do that. If we want to be represented properly in Hollywood, let’s represent ourselves properly in Hollywood.”
In addition to fronting a rock band called Lolawolf, Zoe launched her acting career with films such as “No Reservations” (2007), “The Brave One” (2007), “X-Men: First Class” (2011), and “Dope” (2015). Last year she played Toast the Knowing in George Miller’s “Mad Max: Fury Road” (2015) which was nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. She returns as Christina in “The Divergent Series: Allegiant,” the third movie in the franchise, currently playing in U.S. cinemas.
Despite her lineage and the privilege that comes with it, Zoe says she’s also seen her share of discrimination in the biz.
“People have tried to do that to me over and over again and I’ve been fighting it and fighting it,” Kravitz said. “I would get auditions and it would be like ‘they want you to play the best friend.’ And it’s like ‘why can’t I audition for the lead?’ Then it’ll be like ‘ok now you’re the quirky black girl,’ or ‘now you’re a hippie.’
“I can play all kinds of people. I don’t have to play myself,” she said, adding that her goal now is to not accept roles she views as stereotypical.
“It’s our responsibility to say ‘I’m not going to take the same role over and over again.’ I mean, of course actors gotta eat, but if it’s something you believe in, we have the power to break the stereotypes by a) writing our own things and b) saying no to the same thing over and over again,” Kravitz said.
