Zoë Kravitz encountered many roadblocks to get her directorial debut off the ground. Possibly the biggest was changing the film title from Pussy Island to Blink Twice.
The actress-director, 35, was interviewed by Entertainment Weekly for an article published on July 9, a little over a month before Blink Twice releases theatrically on August 23. In the exclusive, Kravitz revealed why she had to take an alternate route when titling the R-rated thriller.
"It was made very clear to me that 'pussy' is a word that we, our society, are not ready to embrace yet," Kravitz told EW. "There were a lot of roadblocks along the way, 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."
The film, which stars Naomi Ackie, Channing Tatum, Christian Slater, Simon Rex, Adria Arjona, Haley Joel Osment and others, centers waitress Frida (Ackie), who's invited to the private island of tech billionaire Slater King (Tatum). Wild parties take place, but the longer island visitors stay, strange occurrences begin, with Ackie being left to uncover the mystery. But as Pussy Island originally made sense for Kravitz, responses to the title were opposite of what she'd hoped.
"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," Kravitz continued. "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."
Kravitz, who co-wrote the script with E.T. Feigenbaum, admitted that the Pussy Island title is still meaningful to her, even if it's no longer attached to the film.
"I do believe that Pussy Island was the first thing I wrote down when I wrote this movie, and it's the seed of the film, and the spirit of what that means to me is still alive and very much present in the film," she concluded. "And I love the new title. I'm happy with the new title. I think everything happens for a reason, and I think it actually really focuses the movie in a great way. And I think that was always the way it was meant to be."
In a 2022 GQ profile, Kravtiz shared that she was strange noticing that people were so uncomfortable with the Pussy Island title that some even chose to rename it.
"I love getting on calls with marketing people or whatever," she told the publication. "They’re like, 'So, P-Island.' I’m like, 'Eh! That’s not what it’s called…'"