Zoe Kravitz Issue #39

American Woman

By Dana Stewart
Published: March 1st, 2009 | 10:10am

If there’s such a thing as the Obama Generation, you can bet Zoe Kravitz is part of it. At 20, she was elated when Obama won (“I danced in the street all night”), and sung in one of the wildly popular monochromatic Will.i.am videos in the run up to the election.

Kravitz has the surname of her father, rock musician Lenny Kravitz. Her mother, from whom it appears she may have caught the acting bug, is one-time Cosby daughter Lisa Bonet. Politically, Kravitz recalls inheriting no specific stances from her parents other than that of basic environmentalism, complemented by characteristically healthy eating habits that she retains to this day. One can assume, moreover, that the drive to entertain, and the lovely singing voice, did not have to be taught but merely identified within Miss Kravitz’s DNA.

In the upcoming film “The Greatest,” Kravitz plays a teenager pregnant by a boy (Johnny Simmons) who dies abruptly near the beginning of the film. The story then follows the lives of the late boy’s parents, played by Pierce Brosnan (also executive producer) and Susan Sarandon, and their relationship with Kravitz’s character, who is carrying their grandchild.

“The scenes with Pierce Brosnan and Susan Sarandon are breathtaking,” Kravitz says. “My character also ends up being a little crazy, so that was fun.” In a charming life-imitating-art turn of events, the tragically separated young couple in the film is reproduced in real life, as Kravitz and Johnny Simmons are still dating at the time of this interview.

One can also see Kravitz in Assassination of a High School President, which she describes as a “detective film-noir high school movie.” The film is about an enterprising young high school student, a Bob Woodward-esque Reece Thompson, and Kravitz plays a “secret girlfriend” of the title character, who attends the school’s most virulent political (and we could assume sports) rival.

But it wasn’t only Bonet’s acting chops that she inherited, we can soon expect to hear the young Kravitz take a stab at the other family business: rocknroll. The lead vocalist of a yet-to-be named band has one goal for 2009: make a record. “We cannot come up with a name,” she says. “We sit around and just spit out names, and we’re all like ‘No, that’s not it…’” Based in Philadelphia, the band has been described as “pop-punk-rock hippie music.”

She isn’t a total stranger to live performance; Kravitz has performed with NYC’s Citizen’s Band, which she says came about because common acquaintances realized that Kravitz and the gypsy-revival/burlesque/variety show were “of the same species.”

And of course, there’s that little matter of dancing in the streets. It may not be a resume point, but Kravitz hopes that the generation of young people dancing with her in downtown Manhattan last November stays involved, and carries deep respect for President Obama. “I really want the youth to be inspired and be hard on themselves, I feel like we’ve gotten so lazy … He’s inherited such a burden, that man, I mean he has taken one for the team.” She echoes some newfound patriotism, not uncommon these days in America: “One of the most interesting things about that night is when people started singing the national anthem; it was just so nice to be able to sing that song and really mean it, and be proud.”

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*This is part of Venus Zine Spring 2009 issue's "25 Under 25" series. For more awesome young women, check out the rest of the list:

Evan Rachel Wood, Alia Shawkat, Zoe Kravitz, Lady Sovereign, Rye Rye, Ida Maria, Gabriella Cilmi, Adele, Alessi Laurent-Marke, Vivian Girls, Crystal Castles, Samantha Crain, Abby Elliott, Charlyne Yi, Alithia Spuri-Zampetti, Ria Thomas, Helen Oyeyemi, Samantha Larson, and more!

Comments

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Kat (about 1 year)
Where can I get the earrings Rachel Zoe is wearing on the cover. I love them!!!

jillrussell (about 1 year)
Hi Kat, I think you mean the earrings Zoe (Kravitz) is wearing on our fall 2010 cover? They are from House of Love and Luck: houseofloveandluck.com. Thanks!