Even though she’s Hollywood royalty, like many black actresses Zoë Kravitz has struggled to find quality roles that challenge her as an artist. Over the past year, Kravitz has been outspoken about many of the roadblocks she’s encountered along the way, from being typecast to being excluded from roles altogether.
“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. “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.”
The 27-year-old also shared her plans to write, direct, and produce her own works, as well as her commitment to continue turning down roles that don’t appeal to her.
“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.
“This industry is not colorblind, but I think actors can be,” she adds.