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EXCLUSIVE: Naomi Ackie Opens Up About Blink Twice Role And Working With Zoe Kravitz & Channing Tatum: ‘Really Special To Me’
In an exclusive in-depth conversation with Pinkvilla, Naomi Ackie opened up about her Blink Twice role, working with Zoe Kravitz and Channing Tatum as well as her most challenging moment to film.
Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker and The End Of The F***ing World Star Naomi Ackie is all set to grace our screens once again with her new movie Blink Twice. Directed by actress Zoe Kravitz, which marks her directorial debut, the psychological thriller stars Ackie and Channing Tatum in lead roles alongsie a star-studded ensemble.
The movie follows Frida (Ackie), a cocktail waitress who crosses path with tech billionaire Slater King (Tatum) at a fundraising gala and gets invited to his private island for a dream vacation with him and his friends.
The group of vacationers have the time of their life before strange things start to happen. Frida soon finds herself in the middle of unsettling discoveries and embarks on a journey to uncover the truth and make it out alive.
Ahead of the release of the film, Pinkvilla sat down for an exclusive in-depth interview with Naomi Ackie and learnt about her journey of transforming into Frida, her most challenging sequences to film and her working experience with Zoe Kravitz and Channing Tatum. Check out the exclusive conversation below:
From the trailer of Blink Twice itself, the movie appears to be very sunshine and rainbows at one moment but takes you to the darkest and most intense situations in the next. Is there any particular sequence in the move that you found the most challenging to film? As much as you can let on.
There is that ONE scene that is quite horrific that was probably the hardest. And we had to prepare a lot as an ensemble… I think we were all anticipating doing it and I wanted to be as sensitive as possible but knew it had to be done to tell the story. But most of it… most of the filming experience was amazing.
It’s a thriller and the climaxes that happens… there’s quite a bit of running around and that part actually was really exciting to me. I love doing all those kinds of things. There is this one particular scene that I found particularly difficult for good reason and people who are watching (the film) will understand why. Zoe (Kravitz) and I both found it to be challenging but knew it had to be in there to give the story justice.
Is there anything you would like to share about transforming into Frida for Blink Twice? What was your journey with the movie like?
The great thing was Zoe and I talked a lot about it. As soon as I read the script I was like ‘This matters. This actually matters’ and I think that’s really important when you’re finding projects. You really care about what the story is exploring and for Frida, it was really about having conversations on what it feels like to be that kind of girl.
Feeling like you don’t you know what your direction is, that you want more out of life, that you keep on being bombarded with everything else has that you don’t have. Your determination is strong but you have no idea where to put it. Those things are really universal and those things are important to imbue Frida with.
We have seen Zoe Kravitz as an incredible actress over the years but Blink Twice marks her directorial debut. What was it like working with Zoe the director?
Oh my god... it was insane! It seemed so natural. But there’s the thing that anything that seems natural has to be practiced a lot and what I really appreciate in Zoe is she really took her time in creating the story, she really took her time in how she wanted to make it and then by the time it came to me and the rest of the cast, she already had a such a clear idea and that’s because of the hard work she has put in from before.
To me, she was amazing! She was dealing with the daily stresses of being a director incredibly well. But if you ask her the same thing she will be like ‘Ahh I was freaking out’ [Laughs]. I just want to see her keep climbing and keep doing it because she is really special.
How was it like sharing the screen with Channing Tatum? Is there anything you would like to share about working with him?
Oh it was an absolute treat! He is one of the most supportive guys I have worked with. He’s been doing it for such a long time and yet he is still so humble. He is extremely wise and he’s funny and really hardworking. I was just really kind of absorbing his experience because I am still new at this. I have only been doing this, in film, for about 7 years and to me that’s still quite new. And he’s someone who is doing it way longer so I was just like amazed.
Mostly, I was amazed because I’ve never seen him play a character like this... It was a dream and I kept on pinching myself. I look at the whole cast and see the entire cast is incredible. I got the chance to work with this amazing people and I feel really privileged to get to call them my friends now. That’s really really special to me.
Blink Twice is presented by Amazon MGM Studios and is produced by Free Association /This Is Important / and Bold Choice Production. Directed by Zoe Kravitz, it stars Channing Tatum and Naomi Ackie alongside Christian Slater, Simon Rex, Adria Arjona, Haley Joel Osment, Kyle MacLachlan, Geena Davis, and Alia Shawkat.
The film is distributed internationally by Warner Bros. Pictures and will be only in cinemas in India on August 23, 2024.
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