Zoe Kravitz understands better than most that the best way to ensure your long term creative survival in 2015 is to diversify.
Accordingly, the 26-year-old sings (she fronts Lolawolf), models (her credits include Alexander Wang) and acts in movies both big (“Mad Max: Fury Road”) and small (the drone warfare drama “Good Kill”).
Somehow, the show biz veteran and daughter of Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet, managed to carve out a few minutes to speak with us about “Good Kill” and “Mad Max.” Both open in theaters Friday and “Good Kill” will also be available on demand.
Your character in “Good Kill,” Airman Vera Suarez, is a strong counterpart to Ethan Hawke’s Major Thomas Egan.
I’m always looking for strong female characters in any film, especially in a military film. It’s very hard to find. I love that she’s the moral compass of the story. She asks the questions that hopefully the audience is asking and stands up to all these men, which is right up my alley.
It’s such a strange world for these men and women, piloting drones in the Mideast from a base outside of Las Vegas. Did you speak with any rea life counterparts?
I did some research on my own, but the truth is there’s not much information that’s out there. It’s very hard to find. And [writer-director] Andrew [Niccol] did a fantastic job of getting down to the nitty-gritty. He knows everything. He really put in the work when it came to make sure he had his facts right. He had some ex-drone pilots come in and do some courses with me and Ethan. It took the experience of filming these scenes, and being in that box every day, and going through the motions to understand what it really meant.
“Mad Max: Fury Road” is a hell of an opportunity.
That franchise is insane. What they were able to do in ’79 as an independent film is still one of the best action films of all time. I was like, “I want to know what this guy [George Miller] can do with technology and a studio behind him now.”
It’s unlike any movie I’ve seen. What was it like to make it?
Meeting George, he puts the same amount of detail when it comes to character development and world development as you would do in an independent film because he did create the world from the ground up and it’s his baby. Now, he has a studio behind him, he has this crazy cult following, but he’s still this guy from Australia that came up through this world and is trying to make it come to life. Working with him was just an incredible experience. The amount of detail that goes into everything, things that the audience won’t even ever know, is incredible.
