Actress Zoë Kravitz expanded her repertoire by landing a role on the highly lauded series “Big Little Lies” on HBO, however, in a new interview with The Guardian, the 33-year-old star claims she felt “uncomfortable” while filming on location in Monterey, California.
“There were a few moments where I felt a little uncomfortable,” she said, “because it is such a white area.”
When the interviewer asked Kravitz to elaborate on what that meant, she said, “Just weird racist people in bars and things like that.”
Race has been a constant focus for the star, who is the daughter of actress Lisa Bonet and recording artist Lenny Kravitz. At another point in the interview, she discussed how choosing roles had always been tricky because she didn’t want to be “pigeonholed” into only taking on projects that dealt with race in some capacity.
“At one point, all the scripts that were being sent were about the first Black woman to make a muffin or something,” she told The Guardian. “Even though those stories are important to tell, I also want to open things up for myself as an artist.”
This made “Big Little Lies” the perfect project because the role of Bonnie Carson was originally written for a white person.
Elsewhere in the same interview, Kravitz said her request to audition for “The Dark Knight Rises” was turned down because she was “too urban.”
“I don’t know if it came directly from Chris Nolan. I think it was probably a casting director of some kind, or a casting director’s assistant,” the actress said.
“Being a woman of color and being an actor and being told at that time that I wasn’t able to read because of the color of my skin, and the word ‘urban’ being thrown around like that, that was what was really hard about that moment,” Kravitz continued.
Later, the “Big Little Lies” alum clarified and backtracked her comments via social media. Kravitz wrote,
“I was NOT told I was too urban to play Catwoman in the ‘Dark Knight [Rises]’,” the actress posted to her Instagram stories. “It would have made NO sense for me to even be considered for that role at that time. I wanted to AUDITION for a small part in the film and was told (I do not know who said this but this was how it was worded to me) that they were not going ‘urban’ on the part. This is something I heard a lot 10 years ago — it was a very different time.”
She went on, “I did not mention this to point any fingers or make anyone seem racist, namely Chris Nolan, the film’s producers or anyone on the casting team, because I truly do not believe anyone meant any harm. This was many years ago when words like that were thrown around very casually and although I’m very glad that we are attempting to evolve — let’s all calm down — as well as fact check before we write things that are untrue.”
Most recently, Kravitz was cast opposite Robert Pattinson in “The Batman.”
The Daily Wire’s first original film, Shut In, has made its cinematic debut, being met with rave reviews. The Daily Wire is building an alternative to the leftist entertainment industry, one gripping movie at a time. Join us in this mission and stream Shut In today by becoming a Daily Wire member.