Not every two-year-old has a song written about them but when you’re the daughter of music legend Lenny Kravitz life throws up the unexpected. Kravitz and Zoë’s mother, Angel Heart actress Lisa Bonet, named their daughter after the Greek word for ‘life’ and the model, singer, actress, director, and style icon has certainly lived her best life - often right on the edge.
Zoë was smoking weed by 14 and battling anorexia and bulimia into her 20s. She also struggled with life as a single woman in Hollywood: “I’ve experienced some pretty wild behavior from the opposite sex,” Kravitz told Deadline. “People are evolving and changing but there is still a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths.”
Lenny Kravitz with his daughter Zoë; he calls her a ‘blessing’.
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Not every two-year-old has a song written about them but when you’re the daughter of music legend Lenny Kravitz life throws up the unexpected. Kravitz and Zoë’s mother, Angel Heart actress Lisa Bonet, named their daughter after the Greek word for ‘life’ and the model, singer, actress, director, and style icon has certainly lived her best life - often right on the edge.
Zoë was smoking weed by 14 and battling anorexia and bulimia into her 20s. She also struggled with life as a single woman in Hollywood: “I’ve experienced some pretty wild behavior from the opposite sex,” Kravitz told Deadline. “People are evolving and changing but there is still a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths.”
Lenny Kravitz with his daughter Zoë; he calls her a ‘blessing’.
Time Magazine named Zoë Kravitz as one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2022 following her stand-out role as moody Catwoman in the DC flick The Batman and her directorial debut in the mystery thriller Pussy Island - Zoë also co-wrote the script. It’s been a bumpy ride though.
Born in 1998, her parents divorced when she was five. Zoë first lived with her mom in a ‘hippie-ish enclave’ of California then moved to her father’s home in Miami at age 11. "That was a massive change," she told Rolling Stone. "Going from this really quiet house in Topanga, just me and my mom, to my dad's life, which was very busy - lots of people." Mick Jagger, Ashton Kutcher, and Nicole Kidman were among them.
She began experimenting with drugs. Rather than give her a lecture, Lisa Bonet offered to share a joint. Far from reveling in the celebrity spotlight, Zoë was often embarrassed by her uber-cool parents. She recalled Lenny once picked her up from school in a netted shirt, “the nipples out”.
Zoë Kravitz: actress and fashion icon
Zoë started finding her own voice after taking two months off school to join her father on tour in Europe. She fronted a pop-punk band, Elevator Fight - the name coming from a fight the musicians had in an elevator about the band’s name. “We’ll play anywhere,” she said in 2009. “We’ll play in someone’s kitchen if they’ll let us.”
The following year, Elevator Fight was entertaining crowds at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, and had a following in New York and Philadelphia but Zoë was in demand and the band couldn’t tour. She made her acting debut in No Reservations (2007)and was modeling as the face of the Vera Wang perfume Princess. Even fashion bible Vogue was sitting up and taking notes, referring to Zoë as ‘rock star royalty’ and a ‘fledgling style icon’.
Zoë’s cinematic breakthrough came portraying Angel Salvadore in the superhero spy film X-Men: First Class (2011). She could fly and spit fireballs - what’s not to like?
Zoë Kravitz: from punk to Catwoman superstar
Not all of the attention Zoë received has been good. When a musician claimed she shared a kiss with Kravitz, Zoë felt the need to tell her side of the story. “If by ‘kissing’ she means ‘attacking’, then yes, she kissed me,” Kravitz said.
It’s not the first time Zoë’s had to cope with unwanted attention. She started writing the script for Pussy Island in the pre-MeToo era to vent her frustration over how she viewed powerful men taking advantage of women. It evolved into more of a playful tug-of-war between the sexes but the film's title stuck. Zoë enjoys the obvious discomfort it causes. “I love getting on calls with marketing people or whatever,” she told reporters. “They’re like, ‘So, P-Island.’ I’m like, ‘Eh! That’s not what it’s called…’ ”
Zoë has always dealt with life’s ups and downs by throwing herself into her art.
“She chooses the path of hard work, constantly innovating and pushing the status quo. She hustles, writes her own scripts, stays up all night until the job is done,” said Reese Witherspoon, her co-star in HBO’s Big Little Lies,adding that Kravitz’s hidden talent is humor: “She brings an edgy humor to all her work - and to dinner parties, if you’re looking for a perfect guest.”
Zoë Kravitz and Rob Pattinson in The Batman
Zoë Kravitz on The Batman & divorce
The high point of her cinematic career coincided with a low point in Zoë’s personal life.
She spent much of 2020 and 2021 in London filming as Catwoman/Selina Kyle in The Batman during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns. “I already think my job is very bizarre,” she told GQ magazine. “But there’s something even weirder about someone lubing you up and covering you in latex at six in the morning when the whole world is, kind of, stopped.”
The Batman grossed more than $770m internationally and Zoë Kravitz - already a household name - soared even higher. “Batman was the first time that I felt like I was in something undeniable,” she said.
The pandemic delays gave her time to think about what she wanted in the future. Zoë married actor Karl Glusman in 2019 with a guest list reading like a Who’s Who of Hollywood - from Chris Pine to Denzel Washington and Cara Delevingne. Their divorce was finalized in 2021. “It was a gift, just taking the time,” she told Elle magazine. “It really is less about him and more about me learning how to ask myself questions about who I am and still learning who I am, and that being okay. That’s the journey I’m on right now.”
It’s not the first time divorce has ripped her world apart. In addition to Lisa Bonet’s split with Lenny Kravitz, Bonet separated from Zoë’s stepfather, Jason Momoa, in early 2022.
Zoë with her parents and stepfather, actor Jason Momoa
Zoë Kravitz: fighter and survivor
In Christy Lemire's review of The Batman, she describes Kravitz’s portrayal with an astute observation: "This is no flirty, purring Catwoman: She's a fighter and a survivor with a loyal heart and a strong sense of what's right... Kravitz continues to reveal a fierce charisma and quiet strength.”
It’s a movie franchise Zoë Kravitz had been hoping to join for a decade. Zoë has described how she was blocked from auditioning for a small part in The Dark Knight Rises (2012) because they ‘weren’t going urban’. “It was like, ‘What does that have to do with anything?’ I have to play the role like, ‘Yo, what’s up, Batman? What’s going on wit chu?!’” Kravitz told Nylon magazine.
“I don’t know if it came directly from Chris Nolan,” Kravitz later told journalists. “I think it was probably a casting director of some kind or a casting director’s assistant… Being a woman of color and being an actor and being told at that time that I wasn’t able to read because of the color of my skin, and the word ‘urban' being thrown around like that, that was what was really hard about that moment.”
What next? Kravitz will star in and produce the heist thriller The Sundance Kid Might Have Some Regrets about twin bank robbers. She’s also mulling over other roles - perhaps something that will let the light in.
“I’m a huge Sex in the City fan - like huge - I can quote every episode. Sarah Jessica Parker, that’s the Holy Grail,” Zoë said, adding that she isn’t thinking about replacing Parker in a new movie but would happily star alongside her. “I would play her friend or something. Maybe the new Samantha? No, just kidding Samantha. I love you.”
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