Director Zoë Kravitz wanted to convey a cinematic sense of trouble in paradise in “Blink Twice” – The Mercury

Channing Tatum consults with director Zoë Kravitz on the set of their film “Blink Twice.” (Carlos Somonte/Amazon MGM Studios)

In their trailers for “Blink Twice,” Zoë Kravitz's elegant directorial debut, Amazon and MGM try desperately to package the product as a straightforward kidnapping thriller. But for Kravitz, who is best known as an actress (“The Batman,” the Hulu series adaptation of “High Fidelity,” the HBO Steven Soderbergh film “Kimi”), it's a film about memory and power.

How “Blink Twice” tackles these themes in a script that Kravitz developed over seven years with co-writer ET Feigenbaum is full of spoilers. The spoiler-free description: Naomi Ackie, who recently starred in the Whitney Houston biopic “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” plays a Los Angeles cocktail waitress who is invited by a reclusive tech billionaire, played by Channing Tatum, to hang out on his private tropical island with his glamorous, debauched friends, played by Adria Arjona, Christian Slater, Haley Joel Osment and others.

For the newcomers played by Ackie and Alia Shawkat, things feel a little odd from the start. As “Blink Twice” progresses, the risky but rewarding oscillations between terror and black comedy, between #MeToo allegory and “Get Out” freak-out, show Kravitz to be a quick study in how a film’s visual personality, particularly its production and sound design, can work on an audience’s subconscious.

Kravitz grew up in an environment where she always lived a carefree celebrity life. Her mother is actress Lisa Bonet, best known for “The Cosby Show” and “Angel Heart,” and her father (although they separated when Zoë was two) is musician Lenny Kravitz.

When “Blink Twice” was first conceived, two significant, sleazy real-life scandals were on the verge of breaking out inexorably: the sexual assault of Harvey Weinstein and the fallout from #MeToo, and the sex trafficking and sexual abuse involving a long, opaque guest list of perpetrators and enablers that took place on a private Caribbean island owned by the late Jeffrey Epstein. When Kravitz and Feigenbaum revised their script and Tatum came on board as star and producer, the story changed to reflect the present day, albeit indirectly. But that’s not what the film is about, Kravitz told me: “It’s about people and what we do with our power.”

Our following interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Q: We may have to speak a little in code here, but can you discuss some script elements that changed the most in Blink Twice, besides the title?

A: Everything changed quite a bit as the cultural discourse changed and certain situations became public knowledge. We had to rewrite the story of what the characters know and would know and what behavior would be expected or acceptable. The behavior of Slater's character and his crew was not as politically correct, you would say. (Seven years ago) we lived in a world where it was OK to be openly misogynistic, when women might have been less cautious and asked different questions. So we had to update the script to bring it into the present, which helped us focus it and dig a little deeper.

Q: When a director works differently with different actors, what was the key to getting what you wanted from your actor? Especially in terms of tone? It's a tricky film in that respect.

A: (laughs) It really is. I don't know if anyone else really knew what I was trying to achieve with the sound except me! But there was a lot of trust. Sometimes I read lines, which I know is a no-no, but there were times when it was the only way (to dissuade people from) the obvious choice.

Because Chan was also a producer on the film, we had time to fully develop his character and understand who he is and where he comes from. We didn't want to make him just a generic villain. When we were shooting, we knew who he was, so we could play with that and push it further.

Q: And now you are engaged.

A: We are.

Q: Congratulations. Where did you meet?

A: We met on this film. I sent him the script about six years ago and a year later he still wasn't signed to the project but finally he agreed and we started working together and talking more and by the time we shot the film we were engaged.

Q: Were there elements, memories from your own life that you ended up using for Blink Twice? You're creating a world here that's seductive, but with an asterisk.

A: There are different elements. There's something very special about growing up in those spaces, when as a child you're not really participating in the adult world, you're just there, a fly on the wall. You experience power dynamics in a very raw way. I think I've always kept that feeling, that feeling of watching the games that people are playing. And then one day you realize that you're an adult and you're now part of this thing that you're usually just watching. So I've experienced both perspectives.

Having worked with these kinds of people and places before, I was able to add some structure and detail to the world we were creating.

Q: The film has a careful design scheme and it really shows because you can go months without seeing a film of this kind. any optical distinction.

A: I love what film can do with color and texture. We wanted this film to feel alive and subvert audience expectations of what a tech billionaire's property should look like. We wanted to make something beautiful feel almost oppressive. A little terrifying. Our production designer (Roberto Bonelli) contributed so much to that and our cinematographer (Adam Newport-Berra) spent a lot of time with me finding our language, how we wanted to shoot things and allowing ourselves to be playful and bold in our choices. We wanted everything to feel more intense. Like a fairy tale gone wrong.