You could talk about topics as fraught as these forever. How do you know when the script is finished?
Kravitz: I was like, “Naomi, here’s the new scene we’re shooting right now.” We were rewriting the whole time, so that never ended. But specifically because of the topic of the film, we basically had to rewrite so many times because the culture and the conversation and what the characters would be aware of and how they would experience things kept changing. That was the most difficult part—and also part of the fun, too—of the film and the story being this living, breathing thing.
I do think we got it to the place where it felt current. We got to the place where we felt, “Yeah, this is a conversation that we still think has not necessarily happened.”
Naomi, how do you initially react to a script called Pussy Island?
Ackie: I was so down. Seriously. “Zoë Kravitz, Pussy Island.” Where do I sign? Then I was like, “Okay, cool. I have to read it before I chat to her.” When I read it, I had so many thoughts. There’s so many different layers to this. You can be like, “Oh, okay, don’t go to a private island—cool.” We all know, don’t speak to strangers. But beyond that, you can go deeper and deeper and deeper. It encouraged conversation. When we had our conversation, there was so much to talk about.
Kravitz: And you got it so quickly. The tone is so specific. Some people read this and we were just like, “This is crazy, dude.” And for you to get it so easily, it was like, “Oh, of course. This is my Frida.”
Ackie: Do you remember when I was like, “Please, can I do it?”
Kravitz: And I was like, “Oh, are we not on the same page? Bitch, you’ve been cast since the beginning of this conversation. You were cast, like, yesterday.” We met for the first time in New York—we had tacos and hung out in Brooklyn. You came over to my house, we were just talking shit until the sun came up. It was great. I love you.
Ackie: It was perfect. And I feel like it just continued that way. Then we got to do that in Mexico. And the fact that we did it together? Oh my God. Fucking hell. Sorry. Should I not swear on Vanity Fair?
Naomi, viewers experience so much of the story through close-ups of your incredibly expressive face. What was it like to watch the film for the first time and how do you feel about watching yourself in general?
Ackie: It’s complicated. It’s really complicated with this one though. I went to a London screening—me, Alia [Shawkat] and Zoë—she was so nervous.
Kravitz: I was so nervous. I was like, “That was good. But I’m just going to have this drink…” All I really care about is my actors being proud of what we made.
