Zoë Kravitz says society just wasn’t ready for a movie titled Pussy Island

Reclaiming a negative image or slur can be a powerful form of solidarity within a group that that word has been used against, but, at least according to Zoë Kravitz, the word “pussy” might take a little longer to get to the empowerment stage. Despite initially giving her directorial debut the title Pussy Island—a name we, obviously, had a bit of fun with—she later changed it to the significantly less edgy Blink Twice.

“It was made very clear to me that ‘pussy’ is a word that we, our society, are not ready to embrace yet,” she recently told Entertainment Weekly, opening up about the name change for the first time. “There were a lot of roadblocks along the way, whether it be the MPAA not wanting to put it on a poster, or a billboard, or a kiosk; movie theaters not wanting to put it on a ticket.”

This marks a notable change of tune from 2022, when the first-time director remained stubbornly committed to using the word. “The title came from that world [of male-dominated industry]. The title is the seed of the story,” she told The Wall Street Journal at the time. “It represents this time where it would be acceptable for a group of men to call a place that, and the illusion that we’re out of that time now.”

However, when Kravitz realized the slur was having the opposite effect, she did something refreshing: she listened. “Interestingly enough, after researching it, women were offended by the word, and women seeing the title were saying, ‘I don’t want to see that movie,’ which is part of the reason I wanted to try and use the word, which is trying to reclaim the word, and not make it something that we’re so uncomfortable using,” she says now. “But we’re not there yet. And I think that’s something I have the responsibility as a filmmaker to listen to. I care about people seeing the film, and I care about how it makes people feel.”

Kravitz has more than made peace with her decision. “I love the new title. I’m happy with the new title,” she says. “I think everything happens for a reason, and I think it actually really focuses the movie in a great way. And I think that was always the way it was meant to be.”

Blink Twice, which Kravitz co-wrote with E.T. Feigenbaum, was quietly racking up its own stacked roster (right alongside Barbie) in 2022. The film stars Naomi Ackie, Channing Tatum, Christian Slater, Simon Rex, Adria Arjona, Kyle MacLachlan, Haley Joel Osment, Geena Davis, and Alia Shawkat. The official logline reads as follows:

When tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum) meets cocktail waitress Frida (Naomi Ackie) at his fundraising gala, sparks fly. He invites her to join him and his friends on a dream vacation on his private island,” reads the film’s synopsis. “It’s paradise. Wild nights blend into sun soaked days and everyone’s having a great time. No one wants this trip to end, but as strange things start to happen, Frida begins to question her reality. There is something wrong with this place. She’ll have to uncover the truth if she wants to make it out of this party alive.

Blink Twice premieres in theaters August 23. You can watch the trailer below: