Actor Zoe Kravitz, who plays Catwoman in Matt Reeves’ Batman movie, remarked on the comments she made and subsequent backlash faced when Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal magazine, the 33-year-old remarked “It’s a scary time to have an opinion or to say the wrong thing or to make controversial art or statements or thoughts or anything.” She explained her stance, saying, “it’s mostly scary because art is about conversation”, and added, “the internet is the opposite of conversation”.
After the slap, Kravitz had posted a photo of herself on the red carpet, in a pink dress, captioning it “here’s a picture of my dress at the show where we are apparently assaulting people on stage now”. A second photo from the Vanity Fair Oscar party had Kravitz making a similar reference with the caption that read: “and here is a picture of my dress at the party after the award show -where we are apparently screaming profanities and assaulting people on stage now.”
Also Read | How many sorries does a slap require? All Will Smith apologies since Oscars
The actor faced backlash over her posts and deleted both photos since then, and concluded in the WSJ interview “The internet is people putting things out and not taking anything in.”
Kravitz continued that the incident reminded her that being an artist is about “expressing something that will hopefully spark a conversation or inspire people or make them feel seen”, and added, “I think I’m in a place right now where I don’t want to express myself through a caption or a tweet. I want to express myself through art”.
She’s working on her directorial debut, Pussy Island, now.
Kravitz remained firm on keeping the film’s title unchanged and explained to WSJ, “The title is the seed of the story. 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.” The film is about a cocktail waitress who accepts an invite to a tech mogul’s island.
Also Read | Will Smith spotted with wife Jada for the first time since Oscars slap
At the time of the Oscars slap controversy, Kravitz had said she had “very complicated feelings” about what happened. The actor concluded her thought with, “I wish I had handled that differently. And that’s OK.”
