Zoë Kravitz made headlines amid the ongoing success of “The Batman” for opening up about her racist experience with the casting department of ‘The Dark Knight Rises.’
Now, she’s clearing the air.
via The Blast:
During the chat with the interviewer, Kravitz shared that her career was often negatively affected because she is Black. She explained that she dealt with insecurities about her looks which took a while to overcome.
Unfortunately, even after dealing with her insecurities, Hollywood wasn’t kind to her, especially with the roles. They either gave her undervalued roles or ones specifically tilted towards stereotypical black characters.
“All the scripts that were being sent were about the first Black woman to make a muffin or something. Even though those stories are important to tell, I also want to open other things up for myself as an artist,” Kravitz commented.
However, when she wasn’t given such roles, she was outrightly rejected based on her skin color, as in the case of the 2012 movie, “The Dark Knight Rises.” Kravitz recalled being rejected from auditioning for the Christopher Nolan-directed movie for being “too urban.”
“Being a woman of color and being an actor and being told at the 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,” Kravitz lamented.
However, she cleared the air that it’s unsure if the rejection came from Nolan. Following the interview, the internet blew up at the news of Kravitz’s rejection, believing that they chose Anne Hathaway for Catwoman over her.
Amid the uproar about the interview, Kravitz took to social media to clear the air about the facts of “The Dark Knight Rises” controversy. In an Instagram Story update, she wrote, “ok – let’s talk about click bait journalism. I was NOT told to play Catwoman in the Dark Knight. It would have made NO sense for me to even be considered for that role at that time.”
The “Big Little Lies” star continued, expressly stating that she only tried to audition for a small part and was “told that they were not going ‘urban’ on the part.” In a side note, she clarified, “I do not know who said this but this is how it was worded to me.”
Shutting down the backlash hurled at Nolan and the producing team of the Batman movie, the 33-year-old noted that she didn’t share the story to point any accusing finger or make anyone out to be a racist, especially because she believes they meant no harm.
“I was simply giving an example of what it was like to be a woman of color in this industry at that time,” she clarified.
Concluding her message, Kravitz elaborated that the event happened many years ago “when words like that were thrown around very casually.” She ended, writing, “although I’m very glad that we are attempting to evolve ? let’s all calm down ? as well as fact check before we write things that are untrue.”
Anyway, Zoë as Selina Kyle is the best part of ‘The Batman’ — so hopefully she has a solo Catwoman film in the pipeline.
