Zoe Kravitz Discusses the Diversity Problem in Hollywood

Divergent actress covers Teen Vogue’s March 2016 Issue

By Kendall Fisher Feb 04, 2016 1:30 PMTags
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Zoe Kravitz is fighting the diversity issue in Hollywood head on—by not succumbing to stereotypes.

Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet's daughter covers the March 2016 issue of Teen Vogue and has the pleasure of talking openly with the interviewer who also happens one of her best friends: Alexander Wang.

Being a black woman in Hollywood, Zoe is well aware of the uphill battle she faces, but she tells Wang she still refuses to take any stereotypical roles—a timely conversation considering the controversy surrounding the all-white Oscars nominations.

"Typically, white people have the story, and any kind of minority is like adding that pop of red or fun purse or pair of shoes to jazz up an outfit," she explains. "These people are accents that make things funny, weird, or dramatic."

Thus, she won't allow herself to be pigeonholed into one of those categories. "I spent so much of my career saying no to those films. I've seen that movie a million times, and I don't feel right putting that into the world over and over and over again," she adds. "I'm not going to spend the rest of my life playing some girl's friend or some girl on crack in the projects."

In fact, she may soon be one of the people to help make that change, hoping to "write, produce and direct" in her own films in the future. But just because she has two successful parents, doesn't mean each step forward in her career has been or will ever be an easy one, which she says many people have assumed.

David X. Prutting/BFA.com/Sipa USA

"My parents didn't become who they are because anything was handed to them, and they didn't raise a child who expected something to be handed to her, either," Zoe reveals. "My mom would have killed me if I'd assumed any kind of privilege. At first I was really adamant about making sure people knew that I was working hard. Things were definitely handed to me a little bit easier, but people were also judging me twice as hard."

People often compare her to her parents, which she didn't always handle well at the start of her career. However, she's changed her thought process now: "I'm in a better place now where I'm confident in my work. And I want to be able to talk about them with love." She adds, "They're cool people—I get it."

For more from her March 2016 cover interview and shoot, check out Teen Vogue.