Why Zoë Kravitz needed to make thriller Blink Twice her directorial debut (exclusive)

Zoë Kravitz didn't blink twice at taking on the role of director for the first time with her upcoming psychological thriller.

Blink Twice, written by Kravitz and E.T. Feigenbaum, stars Naomi Ackie as Frida, a cocktail waitress tired of being overlooked who gets invited to billionaire tech mogul Slater King's (Channing Tatum) private island for what seems like a nonstop luxurious party. But she soon finds out that paradise isn't all that it seems after her best friend Jess (Alia Shawkat) goes missing, and none of the other partying vacationers seem to care — or even remember that Jess was ever there, despite meeting her days earlier (see the exclusive clip above).

The dark, gripping drama — originally titled Pussy Island — is Kravitz's directorial debut, and she tells Entertainment Weekly that she stepped up to helm the movie because she simply didn't trust anyone else to make it.

"I worked on the script for such a long time — I started writing in 2017, and we shot the movie in 2021," Kravitz says. "I feel like that journey of just being so engrossed in the creation process, by the time we were really talking about actually making the film, I could see this world and these characters so clearly in my mind and I didn't feel like I would be able to handle trusting somebody else to bring this to life. So it felt directing was something I always knew I wanted to do, and this just felt like the most natural progression in terms of just the situation I found myself in."

While it's normal for movies to take some time to make, Kravitz explains that the extra-long process of bringing Blink Twice to life "wasn't intentional" but ended up benefitting the film.

"It was just the amount of time that it took to really get the script into the place we wanted it to be," she adds. "And interestingly enough, a lot of subject matters and things that are in the script kept on changing quite drastically culturally in the zeitgeist. So, of course, we had to rewrite and adapt to that as well, so there were many different versions of this world and of the story."

While it's tough to get into the film's themes without spoiling the plot, the trailer (below) teases some of the chaos to come: the vape-loving Slater declares "everybody's dead," the island's mansion goes up in flames, and the guests, including Adria Arjona's Sarah, notice they're forgetting things. They soon realize they're not having such a great time on this getaway, and it becomes a literal fight for survival.

"I think there are a lot of themes that really fit into each other, like this puzzle in a way, that I don't think I even realized at first as I was writing, which is one of the magical things about writing," Kravitz says. "You have different layers of things that are going on, and you realize how connected everything is, and just the way that we all internalize all these different kinds of stories and societal norms."

And setting the movie on a gorgeous private island wasn't just for the beautiful backdrop — Kravitz wanted to make the location a key part of the story.

"The concept of the island was I was trying to find ways to isolate people, and thinking about things like the Garden of Eden and the serpent and things like that," she explains. "And then, of course, there are other things that happen that we all know about on islands, and people think it's about that but it becomes something else. It's pretty trippy in a way to see the way that things kind of fold into each other. It's interesting."

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Kravitz also turned to some of her favorite movies for inspiration. "Me and my DP, Adam [Newport-Berra], spent a lot of time just watching our favorite films together and trying to nail down what we loved about them," she says. "Kubrick's films, The Shining, specifically, Rosemary's Baby, Pulp Fiction, Django Unchained, Boogie Nights, Phantom Thread. We delved into the worlds that we loved and found ways to be inspired, and at the same time, found our own look, tone, and environment."

Blink Twice, also starring Christian Slater, Haley Joel Osment, Simon Rex, Kyle MacLachlan, Geena Davis, and Trew Mullen, opens in theaters on Aug. 23.

Check out more of EW's exclusive photos from the upcoming thriller below: