Zoë Kravitz Says ‘P—y Island’ Got New Title After ‘Women Were Offended’ and ‘Roadblocks’ From MPA, Movie Theaters: ‘P—y Is a Word Society Isn’t Ready to Embrace’

Zoë Kravitz recently explained to Entertainment Weekly the process behind renaming her upcoming feature directorial debut, which stars Channing Tatum and Naomi Ackie. The title of the project when it was first announced was “Pussy Island,” but somewhere along the line it got changed to “Blink Twice.”

“It was made very clear to me that ‘pussy’ is a word that we, our society, are not ready to embrace yet,” Kravitz said about the change. “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.”

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“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,” Kravitz added. “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 maintained that the “seed of the film” is “Pussy Island,” although she loves the new title “Blink Twice” and is happy with it. She added: “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” follows Frida (Ackie) and Jess (Alia Shawkat) as they are charmed by tech billionaire Slater King (Tatum) and lured to his private island for a weekend getaway. What starts as a steamy vacation soon devolves into a reality-bending nightmare. Kyle MacLachlan, Haley Joel Osment, Adria Arjona, Geena Davis, Simon Rex, Christian Slater and Liz Caribel co-star.

“Blink Twice” is set to hit theaters Aug. 23.

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