Between Big Little Lies, Rough Night, and Gemini, Zoë Kravitz is making some major career moves right now. She just needs Hollywood to catch up.
Kravitz spoke to The Edit about how, as a woman of color, she continues to struggle with casting directors who have narrow-minded views of racial diversity.
“I’m sure it would still happen now," the daughter of Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet said of missing out on parts because of her race. "When my name is brought up in a casting office, I’m sure the fact that I’m Black comes up in discussions. I just read a script in which there were two couples, and one was written as Black. When I talked to the directors, they said I should play the wife of the Black guy. It’s insane that they still think the Black girl needs to be married to the Black guy, and everyone else is white. Their thinking is so compartmentalized.”
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That's not always the case. In Big Little Lies, Kravitz was cast as Bonnie, the free-spirited wife of a white man, though no mention was made of her character's race within the context of the WASP-y Monterey community in which she lives.
Kravitz also singled out her role as Blair in the new bachelorette party comedy Rough Night as an opportunity to play against type.
“It was so fun to play a conservative rich bitch, with a bob and really nice clothes and heels," she told The Edit. "She is so unlike me, and so unlike what I am often cast as.”
Casting directors, are you listening?
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