Hollywood has a new Femme Fatale

Zoë Kravitz can’t stop thinking about a certain scene from the Blink Twice movie shoot. It was the middle of the night, and Naomi Ackie, her star, was supposed to be restrained while lying on the ground in the dirt with a gun to her head while another character played out the scene. Ackie hadn’t eaten in hours, so while they were trying to get the perfect shot, director Kravitz wanted to take a break and give her a snack. She remembers, “But she was like, ‘It’s all right, babe, just hand me the sandwich.'”. Because it was so amazing, I snapped a photo of it. She is sitting in the dirt, smiling, with one hand behind her back and the gun to her head. With the other hand, she is eating her sandwich. “.

Your watching habits will determine how and whether you are currently familiar with Ackie. Her notable roles include The End of the F***ing World on Netflix, Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody in 2022, and her moving performance in the third season of Master of None. But without a doubt, she is about to embark on her greatest professional opportunity. Since Kravitz, who is directing Blink Twice for the first time, is an A-list director, the film is already highly anticipated. Additionally, she casts Channing Tatum, her fiancé, as the villain of the piece—a self-centered and cruel billionaire who will undoubtedly surprise those who think of him more as a charming, frequently dancing romantic lead. The performance that will ultimately define Ackie’s career is her unvarnished and brave portrayal of a cater waiter who charms her way onto the billionaire’s private island only to find out it’s her worst nightmare.

And get this: Blink Twice will be the talk of the town for everyone who sees it. The psychological thriller, which is marketed as “Get Out meets Promising Young Woman,” seamlessly blends elements of gender politics, class warfare, and social satire. It is packaged in a way that appeals to millennials and the internet (pre-rolls and custom lighters are emblazoned with the film’s iconic images). Released at the close of a summer marked by box office successes for tentpoles like Deadpool, Wolverine, and Twisters, it still faces competition from projects that truly change the cultural dialogue. Zendaya’s Challengers, the backers of Blink Twice, released their last album last and was the last to make a splash on social media.

For a thirty-four-year-old London-based actress like Ackie, it’s a dream project, but there are risks involved. Our first meeting is at 7:30 a.m. M. on the day of the film’s global premiere, in her Beverly Hills hotel lobby, and she is immediately open about the nervousness she is facing in the lead-up to this occasion. “I tried to tell myself on the plane that everyone must be nervous,” Ackie recalls. “Zoë and Chan must be anxious. I truly enjoy creating things, but I don’t think I do a very good job of presenting myself. I’ve internalized the notion of what “movie stars” ought to be. They always appear so polished and self-assured. I begin to feel a little awkward and fake. “.

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Her goal has always been to become a movie star. She used to visit Leicester sq\. as a child, watching the red carpets, especially for the Harry Potter movies, even though she was raised in a suburb of London. She made up her mind to attend drama school by her senior year of high school. She received a visit from Riz Ahmed while she was attempting to arrange payment for her applications. Although the actor was not yet the big star he would become (this was five years before his breakthrough performance in Nightcrawler), he wanted to encourage students from all backgrounds to enroll in the Royal Central School for Speech and Drama.

Ackie was encouraged by Ahmed’s offer to give away a free application voucher to anyone who requested one, and she told a teacher that she intended to apply. Ackie remembers, “He turned and walked away after looking at me and saying, ‘It’s very hard to get into.'”. After consulting her mother immediately for strategy, she devoted the following year to becoming the strongest candidate. She joined the school musical, worked as a mentor for young people at a nearby youth theater, and obtained a part-time job at another theater. It was successful. “I can be very arrogant at times because I’m a Leo, and I remember telling that same teacher back in that college that I had entered drama school,” she chuckles. And I had to be the one to turn around and leave. “.

After landing a few early parts in British TV series like Doctor Who and the Harlan Coben mystery series The Five, she went on to star in her first motion picture, William Oldroyd’s Lady Macbeth, in 2016. The production had a tight budget, and Ackie—who was still living with her parents at the time—shared a cottage in the English countryside with co-star Florence Pugh. Despite their lack of experience, the two found the modest setting to be enchanting. She laughs and says, “First and foremost, they would stock our kitchen, and I was blown away by the free food on set.”. I still make this rice cake and pesto dish that Florence used to make for us when we would sit on our back porch and talk endlessly about life. We had no one to ask, “What’s next?” and no expectations because we were so young. It was pure. “.

A few years later, she played Jannah in the last part of J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars trilogy, Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker, and co-starred in the comic book adaptation The End of the F***king World, which debuted on Netflix to a devoted but niche audience and won her a BAFTA in 2020 for best supporting actress. I. J. The trilogy by Abrams. Now that she is considering the comparison to Macbeth’s scope, she laughs. “When I couldn’t get the horse to land in the proper spot for a stunt on the first day, I cried,” she recalls.

She removed her Instagram account before the public release of her Star Wars casting news, per insider advice. She makes reference to the horrifying backlash that John Boyega faced following his 2017 casting announcement when she says, “I had heard that anyone of color would get wrapped up in some racist shit.”. “I refused to give them a space to come and make remarks. She finally made a comeback to the platform at Disney’s insistence and with their assistance after the opposition she had anticipated didn’t materialize.

They performed some sort of magic, and I immediately received all these followers and the checkmark [verification]. After that, Star Wars was released, and everything was alright, so I lived with that for a while. However, I eventually discovered that I was scrolling too much, comparing myself to other people and feeling depressed, unhappy, and jealous. I began adding attention-grabbing content to my page. Trying to be hot or funny on my Instagram stories, or trying to be funny and a thirst trap from my fucking house share with three other guys. I felt like, “What the fuck, this isn’t working at all,” and that was how I felt. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that it was time to properly dispose of it. “.

She joined the cast of Master of None two years later for the show’s much-anticipated third season, which featured a creative shift that gave show creator Aziz Ansari more time and space to direct each episode by putting his character, Dev, in the background. For the part of Alicia, Ackie put herself on tape. Alicia is initially the wife of Lena Waithe’s Denise, but she eventually gains the most moving screen time of the season as she goes through a divorce, a miscarriage, and finally an IVF journey on her own. While Ansari found her audition tapes intriguing, he didn’t fully realize how talented she was until they brought her to London for a chemistry read with Waithe. He tells THR, “After her first few reads, I told her to just try it as herself, and with her own British accent.”. Her personality was evident as it burst open. We needed someone who could hold her own because Lena is such a force when it comes to improvisation, and Naomi could. She was the one we knew could carry us through the season. “.

The work was more intricate than anything she had previously completed. At 29, Ackie was facing the psychological burden of infertility issues, which thankfully felt distant from her own situation. Her response to her 37-year-old character’s declining fertility is described as follows: “I just thought, OK, that’s interesting to know, but that’s a problem for someone else in the future.”. She laughs and says, “I’m not ready to have my own child until I’m probably like 40,” even though she is now four years closer to her character’s age. I talk about how simple it is to find yourself one day ensnared in a biological desire you had no idea you were capable of. She remarks, “It’s really helpful to know.”. “That one day all you have to do is glance at a baby and say, ‘I want you.'”. “I feel really intentional about wanting to be married for a few years before that happens, but I know it’s bad the longer you wait.”. I also don’t have a house. Mate, I can’t even take care of a fucking plant. Furthermore, I cannot maintain a clean home. When I departed for L, I didn’t even make my bed. 1. “.

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With co-writer of the High Fidelity series E. Scott Kravitz, Kravitz wrote Blink Twice. T. Feigenbaum, Ackie portrays Frida, a future nail artist who supports herself by working as a caterer waiter. As the movie opens, she is getting ready to perform at a gala honoring Slater King, a brash tech billionaire who is trying to rebuild his reputation after a vague scandal by going on tour and establishing a foundation for charity. From her search history, it is evident that Frida is drawn to King because he embodies all the cultural ideals that are beyond her reach, such as wealth, power, masculinity, and whiteness. She finds herself drawn to King by an instinctive need, and she eventually manages to get an invitation to the private island he has been using as a hideout, along with her roommate, Alia Shawkat. Before a feeling deep in Frida’s stomach becomes too much of a warning sign to ignore, the trip begins as an opulent bacchanal complete with a sparkling swimming pool, endless champagne, and nightly multicourse meals topped off by communal hallucinogenic trips.

The character of Frida is a surrogate for the audience as well as an unreliable narrator, and viewers follow along as her star-struck happiness in front of Slater King turns into trepidation and worse. Kravitz knew she wanted an expressive face in her cast. Kravitz sent her the script and requested a Zoom meeting after she had seen Master of None and The End of the F***ing World. “I’m paying attention, because I received an email saying that Zoë Kravitz is interested in you,” Ackie remarks. “And then it’s called Pussy Island? She wrote it? I’m thinking, ‘Okay, what have I got to do to get the part?'”.

Ackie and Kravitz concur that their initial meeting validated their shared creative spirit, even in the absence of an official audition. In terms of influences and movie references, Ackie and Zoë have a similar shorthand whereby Zoë would say one word to him and I would respond, “Holy shit, dude, I get what you mean.”. She responds, “Yes, buddy, I am talking about the thing thing thing,” when I say, “You’re taking about the thing thing thing.”. The two were also in agreement about the film’s contentious themes, such as what it looks like when a woman craves power and will stop at nothing to be near its sources, and that Frida is a delightfully flawed lead character.

“Exploring what it feels like to be a woman is very personal to me, and when I talk to my girlfriends, we all have similar experiences, but it can be a little scary when you go outside of your circle,” says Kravitz, who later renamed the movie to avoid offending any female viewers. When I realized, “Oh, you vibe with this,” it was a relief. I had discussed our relationships with power and what it feels like to be told to be invisible with Naomi. “”.

According to Ackie, “I frequently ask myself, ‘Why do I compare myself to other people and why is it difficult for me to be grateful for what I have instead of focusing on the things I don’t have?'” and she usually assigns the blame to her gender. Maybe it’s because I’m Black, or because I am this or that. While all of that is true, concentrating on it hinders my day-to-day activities. I get into problems when I lose sight of that and become more resentful than appreciative; recalling Lady Macbeth makes me realize how content I was with what I had. I feel like I’m being reminded to live in the present and be thankful for what I have now that I have two major films coming out: Blink Twice and Mickey 17 starring Bong Joon Ho. “.

Before their initial meeting, Tatum watched some top-secret footage of Ackie in Whitney that he had obtained while joining the project (he claims not even to know how). After seeing the performance, he was uneasy about her confidence, especially considering the weight of the role she was playing: “I never would have had the confidence to do that.”. They were therefore both anxious before their chemistry read. To help her relax, Ackie drew on her background in drama school. “I’m sweating profusely, wearing a wig, and we’re in the Mexican sun when I suddenly realize it’s Channing Tatum! I feel like I’m already screwing up.”. I turned to face him, asking if he would just turn around and give me a silly dance to get us both loose. He said sure, and we immediately began to dance. You’re a really nice guy, I thought. “.”.

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The Whitney Houston biopic was supposed to be her big break. It was, in a sense, because it elevated Ackie to the top of the bill and brought her critical acclaim (THR’s review praised her “heartfelt, emotionally raw performance”) amidst the film’s more unfavorable assessments. “It’s intriguing to come across a review that is quite conflicting, as you may not be personally affected by the negative comments, but you collaborated with those individuals and want everyone to experience the same happiness,” she adds. “I would scroll even after reading the positive reviews. Like, checking my name on Twitter to see if I was hated by anyone. I seem to recall reading somewhere that questioned why the actress was portraying Whitney Houston, considering that she is a gap-smiling D-list celebrity. Though there’s now a movie poster featuring my gap, at the time it felt like the end of the world. “.

For the part, Ackie forced herself to shed thirty pounds, partly due to Houston’s unusually slender frame and partly because of the way she had witnessed men successfully sculpt their bodies for roles. She states, “I was working hard, not smart, and it put me in a bad mental space.”.

Remarkably, she discovered that she developed a slight addiction to her excessively thin new form. “I had reached the size I had always desired. My goal was to remain small in size. I believed that my size 4 American body would make me more successful. It opens doors even though it’s messed up. She persisted in going to the gym, defying gravity to maintain her weight loss, but she felt her happiness dwindling. Things were put into stark perspective during a conversation with her boyfriend. She clarifies, “I asked him if he had any body hang-ups, and he said no.”. “I know this is probably too much to share, but maybe it will help someone. You haven’t been doing calorie math like me?”. With Whitney, I eventually reached a point where I could tell you the number of calories in any food you could name. I regret not having enjoyed myself more when I think back on it. I labor diligently to cover my rent and other expenses, and with any luck, you may have some extra cash to take a trip and indulge in your favorite foods. Thus, bitch, I ought to eat.

Ackie received a gift of time and a chance to reassess his situation: the SAG strike. She came to the realization that she was exhausted and had neglected her personal life because she had been concentrating so much on advancing her career. Blink Twice was an amazingly healthy production for Ackie, considering the subject matter. They resided in a house in the town of Merida on the weekends, and they shot scenes at a hotel during the week on the Yucatán peninsula in Mexico. The group would get together with a speaker on the hotel’s veranda or the lawn following night shoots, enjoying music and mezcal as the sun rose. After becoming close friends, they started a group chat two years later, which they still call Pussy Island in remembrance of the original nickname. The script required the actresses, Shawkat and Adria Arjona, who starred in Hit Man, to spend the most of the shoot in bikinis, so roughly two weeks prior to filming, they got together to talk about any anxieties or unresolved issues. Zoë responded, “I’ve got you, I will never put you in a position where you don’t feel comfortable, and I want you to feel hot and confident,” to my apprehensions about how these girls would be kept safe and secure during our bikini run. “.”.

“What am I even preaching about if I can’t provide a safe space while making this movie? I wanted this production to be a place to work out these exact feelings and emotions with the help of these women,” Kravitz continues. In addition, I can tell them what I would want to hear because, as an actor, I know how vulnerable it is to put yourself on screen in that way. Something along the lines of, “Turn this way instead of that; that angle doesn’t look good.”. “”.

After shooting Blink Twice in Mexico, Ackie flew directly to the first day of rehearsals for Bong Joon Ho’s highly anticipated sequel, Mickey 17, which is set to premiere in January. It is a futuristic love story set on a far-off planet. Ackie can only share with me her initial thoughts of co-star Robert Pattinson (“He’s a thinker; he thinks very deeply about the role, the script, and the structure, and we got to know each other that way”) and the fact that she hasn’t seen the movie yet. Ackie is still sworn to secrecy over the highly guarded plot. She says, “I’m hoping I balanced it right, but I’m pretty scared to see it because it’s heightened emotions and tonally different than what I’ve done before.”. She tells me that there will be some moments in the movie where everyone will be talking, and I make a wild guess that one of them is a sex scene because, in the world of Mickey 17, sex is mechanically quite different. If I’m thinking correctly, I ask her to blink twice. “But it’s all an experiment, right?” she asks. “I’m going to blink in half. I’m unable to affirm or deny,” she chuckles.

She doesn’t know what Blink Twice—and Mickey 17 after that—will bring to her career. Of course, she will ride whatever wave of popularity they create, but she claims she no longer aspires to be a superstar. She says, “I used to dream that everyone knew who I was, but that’s changing.”. It’s terrifying to think that some people actually know who I am. “.