In a new interview, Zoe Kravitz discussed ethnic stereotyping in Hollywood casting.
Specifically, Kravitz said that The Dark Knight Rises casting left her upset after they turned her down for her ethnicity, saying, “In the last Batman movie, they told me that I couldn’t get an audition for a small role they were casting because they weren’t ‘going urban. It was like, ‘What does that have to do with anything?’ I have to play the role like, ‘Yo, what’s up, Batman? What’s going on wit chu?'”
She went on to say that she has chosen carefully the roles that she plays because she wants to avoid getting typecast.
“I don’t want to play everyone’s best friend,” she told Nylon. “I don’t want to play the role of a girl struggling in the ghetto. It’s not that that story isn’t important, but I saw patterns and was like, ‘I don’t relate to these people.'”
She also talked about growing up in her father’s shadow and how his music career influenced her own decision to jump into the entertainment business.
“There was a point in my teens where I was very self-conscious and didn’t want to make any music because I would get compared to my dad,” she said. “But I knew I was working hard. I’m not a f–king genius, but I know who I am as an artist. The one thing about art is you can’t question it. Everyone is looking at everyone else to find out what’s cool. No one knows what’s cool. Just do it with confidence — no one can take that away from you.”