Zoë Kravitz is revealing the reasoning behind the rebrand for her highly anticipated directorial debut. The film formerly known as Pussy Island — starring Kravitz’s now-fiancé, Channing Tatum — is now called Blink Twice, a decision that the 35-year-old tells Entertainment Weekly came after seeing the public’s response to the name.
“It was made very clear to me that ‘p*ssy’ is a word that we, our society, are not ready to embrace yet,” she tells the outlet of the name change, explaining that a lot of the “roadblocks” were logistical. “Whether it be the MPAA not wanting to put it on a poster, or a billboard, or a kiosk; movie theaters not wanting to put it on a ticket.”
But more than that, Kravitz learned that despite wanting her film to empower women, the title was garnering the opposite sentiment.
“Interestingly enough, after researching it, women were offended by the word, and women seeing the title were saying, ‘I don’t want to see that movie,’ which is part of the reason I wanted to try and use the word, which is trying to reclaim the word, and not make it something that we’re so uncomfortable using,” she reveals. “But we’re not there yet. And I think that’s something I have the responsibility as a filmmaker to listen to. I care about people seeing the film, and I care about how it makes people feel.”
In a 2022 interview for WSJ Magazine‘s Fall Women’s Fashion issue, Kravitz shared that the film’s story “was born out of a lot of anger and frustration around the lack of conversation about the treatment of women, specifically in industries that have a lot of money in them, like Hollywood, the tech world, all of that.”
Having heard stories about powerful men inviting women to remote islands for hazy hedonist free-for-alls, Kravitz began writing several years ago, prior to the #MeToo movement that kicked off a Hollywood shakeup, envisioning the version of reality that she would want to see instead.
“The title came from that world. The title is the seed of the story,” she explained of its original name. “It represents this time where it would be acceptable for a group of men to call a place that, and the illusion that we’re out of that time now.”
Blink Twice, written by Kravitz and E.T. Feigenbaum, stars Naomi Ackie as Frida, a cocktail waitress tired of being overlooked who gets invited to billionaire tech mogul Slater King’s (Tatum) private island for what seems like a nonstop luxurious party. King is notorious for throwing long, lavish parties on his private island and Frida drags along her friend, Jess (Alia Shawkat), to join in on the lavish festivities.
But Frida soon finds out that paradise isn’t all that it seems after Jess goes missing, and none of the other partying vacationers seem to care — or even remember that Jess was there despite meeting her days earlier. The dark drama soon becomes a literal fight for survival.
The film also stars Simon Rex, Christian Slater, Geena Davis, Haley Joel Osment and Kyle MacLachlan.
Although Kravitz and Tatum, 44, didn’t know one another before the film, they became close personally and professionally while working on the movie in Mexico back in 2022. They’ve kept things relatively private, quietly getting engaged in 2023.
While on location filming in Yucatan, Tatum previously told ET that he was “in awe” of Kravitz’s directorial skills.
“We’re doing some really, really cool stuff,” he noted of the film. “It’s super stylized and yet really fun, but has a very deep and I think a shocking sort of message at some point.”
The Magic Mike alum opened up about working with his fiancée during a recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
“She brought me a script and it was definitely something no one has ever thought of me for, and I really was like, ‘Wow, why do you want me for this?'” Tatum recalled. “It was a long journey. She’s been writing it for like five, six years now.”
“I think I had one meeting with her and then she went away for, like, a year and a half to like work on the thing,” Tatum said. “Then my producer came to me and was like, ‘Look, this thing is getting really good. We might actually make this.’ And then I read it and it was. It was really, really good.”
He confessed, “And it’s crazy, I’m just gonna tell you. It’s a wild, wild movie.”
Kravitz’s romance with Tatum is her first since her public split from ex-husband Karl Glusman. The two ended their relationship after 18 months of marriage in 2021.
Tatum was previously married to his Step Up co-star, Jenna Dewan, from 2009 to 2019, and they share daughter Everly, 11.
Blink Twice is in theaters Aug. 23.