Zoë Kravitz regrets calling out Will Smith for slapping Chris Rock at the 94th Academy Awards.
Back in March, Kravitz took to Instagram to publicly rip Smith for the Oscars slap. “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,” she sarcastically wrote.
In a new interview with the Wall Street Journal, Kravitz admitted she wished she’d “handled that differently.”
“I’m torn about what to say right now, because I’m supposed to just talk about it; I have very complicated feelings around it,” Kravitz shared. “I wish I had handled that differently. And that’s okay.”
Kravitz’s comments sparked backlash, with some internet trolls blasting the actress for previously hitting on Will’s 23-year-old son Jaden. During her conversation with the WSJ, Zoë admitted that the response to her remarks convinced her to tread lightly when it comes to exchanging in public discourse on the internet.
“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,” Kravitz said. “It’s mostly scary because art is about conversation. That should, in my opinion, always be the point. The internet is the opposite of conversation. The internet is people putting things out and not taking anything in.”
She added, “I was reminded that I’m an artist. Being an artist is not about everybody loving you or everyone thinking you’re hot. It’s about expressing something that will hopefully spark a conversation or inspire people or make them feel seen. 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.”
Fresh off starring alongside Robert Pattinson and Paul Dano in The Batman, Kravitz is set to make her directorial debut with Pussy Island, an upcoming thriller starring Channing Tatum.
“I’m really grateful that this movie has brought him into my life that way,” she told the WSJ. “I felt, even from afar, before I knew him, that he was a feminist and that he wasn’t afraid of exploring that darkness, because he knows he’s not that. That’s why I was drawn to him and I wanted to meet with him. And I was right.”
