A matter of records
Big Little Lies’ Zoe Kravitz (right) is the daughter of musician Lenny Kravitz and fronts the band Lolawolf. Now she’s putting her musical talent to good use in High Fidelity, in which she plays a record store owner, Robyn Brooks, who is lamenting a lost
What is your own relationship to record stores?
I grew up on vinyl in the house. My father always had record players and I grew up collecting vinyl. So I grew up going to music stores and listening to records but also CDs and waiting in line, and so the whole culture of going to a place and finding new music, talking to people about music, that was something I very much grew up in.
This series is now set in current times, but do you think record stores are still relevant?
Yes, but there’s not very many left and yet that’s part of the story, I think. In the book and in the film, it’s very much just about the guy who owns a record store because that was a normal job and now it’s about people deciding to hold on to these record stores for dear life.
What is your relationship to TV and what and how do you watch?
I live in New York and I have a projector, not an actual television. I have a big white wall and I have a very comfortable big fluffy couch and I spend a decent amount of time there so I can watch films and almost feel like I’m in a theatre. I have Hulu, Netflix, all that stuff and I do watch a lot of Friends, a lot of Seinfeld, I watch The Sopranos over and over again, that’s my favourite show of all time. So it takes a really great show to catch my attention right now. Ramy I love and Succession I think is an amazing show. But when I want that comfort, I’ll end
“I think music has a wonderful way of penetrating our souls, getting right to the point.”
– Zoe Kravitz
up just throwing on Curb Your Enthusiasm or something like that.
Your mother (actress Lisa Bonet) appeared in the 2000 film High Fidelity. Do you see comparisons when you watch each other’s work?
I think we’re similar. I think people see us differently than we are when they don’t know us, but my mother and I have very similar senses of humour. We crack each other up and people say we have very similar laughs. My mother is also my best friend and we’re very close so I think we have just similar spirits, and she raised me so I am a product of her.
You got married between Big Little Lies and High Fidelity. Has anything changed with marriage?
That’s a good question. I feel like the same person but I feel like I’m in a new phase of my life. There’s something beautiful about the commitment that you make when you get married, especially as I’m someone that travels a lot. My husband (actor Karl Glusman) has become just my rock and he’s my home and there’s something very comforting when life gets very crazy knowing that, no matter what, you’ll have that person who’s there for you.
Could you relate to your character regarding how you dealt with a bad break-up?
Well the funny thing is I tend to stay friendly with my exes, so I’m still very close with most of them. After making the show I wondered if I was able to ask them what it was like to be with me. I’m a little scared to ask that to be honest so I never did. It’s a very vulnerable thing because I’m sure all of the answers wouldn’t be pleasant but there’s also something beautifully brave about doing that so maybe I will do it at some point.
How do you connect music with your acting?
I think music has a wonderful way of penetrating our souls, getting right to the point, so there’s definitely certain songs, artists, voices that trigger things emotionally in me, so if I’m having trouble getting to a place in a performance, then music is a really wonderful way to access just emotion and vulnerability – anger too. You put on an angry song and you feel it, especially something like Rage Against The Machine.
Where would you describe you’re at in your life, going into playing Catwoman in the next Batman movie with Robert Pattinson and coming off a show like Big Little Lies into your own show?
It definitely feels like I’m stepping into new territory creatively and emotionally. I think I have a clearer idea of who I am as a person and as an artist and so I think the next 10 years feel like they will be exploring that. I feel like when we’re younger we spend a lot of time trying to figure out what body of water to even get in. Do I go in this pool or do I go in the ocean, do I go here? And then you finally figure out, ‘Oh, I belong in this lake right here and I’m going to spend the next year swimming around in that lake and seeing what’s in there’. It’s a weird analogy but I think it resonates. Streams on Neon from July 13