It’s no secret children of superstar parents don’t have it easy, especially when they want to forge their own path. And for Zoë Kravitz, who is doubly blessed with parents who made their own marks in music and television, carving out her own lane seemed even tougher.
It’s why the daughter of actress Lisa Bonet and musician-actor Lenny Kravitz almost ditched her famous last name. Instead, she initially wanted to go by Zoë Isabella, her middle name.
“I thought about not using it,” the 31-year-old told actor Dax Shepard on his podcast, Armchair Expert. “Kind of tried to do it, but it just like didn’t stick. People kept on forgetting. No one was responding to this idea I had. I would tell my agent and it just wasn’t happening.”
Not to mention when she told her famous father, he seemed to take it hard.
“I also think I mentioned it to my dad at one point and I think I could feel that it made him a little sad,” Kravitz admitted. “So, yeah, I just kind of stuck with it. I did use to be really insecure about people just associating me with my family and now I love it—I’m so proud of them and it’s cool.”
Back in 2016, Kravitz explained that she tried to run away from her famous moniker due to her own insecurities, “thinking people were talking to me only because of who my parents are,” she told Teen Vogue. “I’m in a better place now where I’m confident in my work. And I want to be able to talk about them with love.”
And it’s no secret why Kravitz, who’s currently starring in Hulu’s High Fidelity, is successful in Hollywood. She gets it from her mama—and daddy.
“My parents didn’t become who they are because anything was handed to them, and they didn’t raise a child who expected something to be handed to her, either,” she continued in Teen Vogue. “My mom would have killed me if I’d assumed any kind of privilege.”
“Things were definitely handed to me a little bit easier, but people were also judging me twice as hard.”