Zoe Kravitz says women were 'offended' by original name of upcoming film, 'Blink Twice'
"There were a lot of roadblocks along the way," Kravitz said.
Zoë Kravitz is sharing why she changed the title of her directorial debut film.
"Women were offended by the word, and women seeing the title were saying, 'I don't want to see that movie,'" Kravitz told Entertainment Weekly in an interview.
Originally called, "P**** Island," Kravitz said the reaction that she was getting from that title ultimately led her to change the name of the movie to "Blink Twice."
The actress and first time director said she wanted to go with the original title of the film to "reclaim" the word and "not make it something that we're so uncomfortable using."
Kravitz said that the name was one of the first things she wrote down when she embarked on the project, calling it, "the seed of the film."
But after research was done and the opposite response to the title from audiences, Kravitz said she needed to change it.
"It was made very clear to me that 'p****' is a word that we, our society, are not ready to embrace yet," Kravitz added. "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."
"We're not there yet," she said. "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."
Despite changing the title, Kravitz said that the essence of it is still "alive and very much present in the film."
"I love the new title," she said. "I'm very happy with the new title. I think everything happens for a reason, and I think it actually really refocuses the movie in a great way. And I think that was always the way it was meant to be."
The upcoming film's star-studded cast includes Kravitz's fiancé Channing Tatum, as well as Naomi Ackie, Christian Slater, Simon Rex, Adria Arjona, Kyle MacLachlan, Haley Joel Osment, Geena Davis and Alia Shawkat.
According to a synopsis for the movie, which Kravitz co-wrote with E.T. Feigenbaum, "Wild nights blend into sun soaked days and everyone's having a great time."
"No one wants this trip to end, but as strange things start to happen, Frida (Ackie) begins to question her reality," the synopsis continues. "There is something wrong with this place. She'll have to uncover the truth if she wants to make it out of this party alive."
"Blink Twice" will arrive in theaters on Aug. 23.