Zoe Kravitz has been best known for her role as the famous artist BFFs Katie Cole and Daisy Mayfair in the hit Netflix series Gilmore Girls. Now, the 33-year-old actress is starring in The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, a TV adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. In between seasons of Gilmore Girls, Kravitz had a busy year, hitting the headlines for all the right reasons. Here, she opens up about life after Gilmore, Robert Pattinson and why she’s happy to be back on the big screen.

The Last Year

Kravitz spent 2018 recharging, spending time with her kids and taking some well-deserved breaks. She shared a rare interview with Vanity Fair, confirming that she is indeed engaged to be married to her musician boyfriend, Ben Harper. And in September 2018, she gave birth to their first child, a daughter named Ruby. The couple wed in an intimate ceremony at their Los Angeles home in October.

While Kravitz didn’t give birth to her second child, Ella, until the end of the year, she did keep busy with her acting career. She nabbed her second lead in a fantasy series, Warrior Princess, which follows the adventures of “a kick-ass babe” (Kravitz’s words) who protects a medieval village from monsters. The actress also starred in the crime thriller, Chasing Amy, alongside Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn. Additionally, she voiced the character of Judy in the animated film, Bambi vs. Godzilla.

The Before Year

Before 2018, Kravitz had mostly stayed out of the limelight, focusing on her family and pursuing her career quietly. In 2016, she appeared in the romantic comedy, Your Sister’s Sister, alongside Ellen Page and Elizabeth Olsen. But as discussed in her VF interview, the actress didn’t completely stay off the small screen. In fact, she made a surprise appearance in the comedy series, Hello Counselor, which starred Denis Leary and Peter Serafinowicz. It turns out that she and Page had been friends for years and were finally able to work together again.

Kravitz made her big screen debut in 2011, appearing in a short film, The Zoo Story, alongside Michael Fassbender. Since then, she’s worked steadily, appearing in supporting roles in a number of major films. She’s currently in post-production on the psychological thriller, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, in which she plays a bisexual college professor who befriends a teenage boy (Tom Kenny) and raises questions about gender identity and sexuality.

Gilmore Girls

Kravitz is best known for playing Gilmore Girls, the BFFs of Katie Cole and Daisy Mayfair. The Netflix series focuses on the friendship between the three women and was renewed for a fourth and final season in November 2017. While many fans were sad to see the end of the series, Kravitz was happy to call it quits: “I’m glad that we got to go out on top. I feel like we went out with a very strong friendship, and I feel like that’s the most important thing.”

Kravitz’s character, Daisy, is arguably the most complex and interesting among the three. A successful painter who dates famous artists and is admired by many, she balances her private life with her professional one, often getting sucked into her friends’ problems. As the series progresses, we see that Daisey’s career is declining as her private life becomes more chaotic, with her drinking and drug use interfering with her work. When she decides to have a baby with her long-time boyfriend, Charlie, it throws her entire world into disarray. While she loves her child and tries her best, she fails miserably as a mother, eventually removing the baby from her care before turning to drugs again.

In 2014, Gilmore Girls was revealed to be the most-watched scripted series on Netflix at the time. More than 27.2 million viewers watched the final season, making it the biggest-ever television event for the company at the time. In 2018, it was revealed that the show officially reached 29.5 million viewers across all platforms (Netflix, Prime Video and DVD/Blu-ray).

Pride and Prejudice

The actor received acclaim for her performance as Lizzie Bennet, the heroine of Jane Austen’s classic Pride and Prejudice. In her VF interview, she spoke about taking on the challenge of a modern adaptation of one of Austen’s most famous novels: “I just knew that I wanted to play her; I don’t know why. I just knew that I wanted to play her. So, when they said, ‘Let’s do a modern adaptation of Pride and Prejudice,’ I was like, ‘Okay.'”

While Lizzie Bennet is a strong, independent woman who stands up for herself, Kravitz says that she didn’t necessarily have to do that much research into the character. Instead, she relied on her own experiences to shape her portrayal: “I didn’t really have to do a whole lot of research. I just knew that she was somebody that I could relate to, somebody that I could see myself in, and somebody that I could see myself being friends with. So, I think that just comes from being a woman and being able to relate to her on that level.”

The actress also praised the script for Pride and Prejudice, calling it “incredible” and noting that screenwriter Sarah Apke had “done her homework” when it came to Jane Austen’s original sources. When asked about her character’s fashion, Kravitz had this to say: “I feel like she would wear what she wants, and I feel like she would wear the clothes that she feels beautiful in. So, I think that there’s a sort of freedom in that. She doesn’t really follow any sort of fashion rules, other than she feels beautiful in what she wears and likes what she sees on others.”

Kravitz’s portrayal of Elizabeth Bennet won her several awards, including the Golden Globe in 2014 and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Actress in a comedy series in 2017. She’ll also be competing for an Emmy at the 2019 ceremony for her work on Gilmore Girls. If she wins, it would make her the first person to win an Emmy for playing the same character twice.

Other Projects

Aside from her Netflix series, Kravitz has featured in a number of movies and TV shows. These include:

  • Denis Leary’s The House
  • Amy Schumer’s Downside Up
  • Denis Leary’s The Office
  • John Leguizamo’s Gloria
  • Denis Leary’s The Charming Young Man
  • Jon Favreau’s The Lion King
  • Michael J. Fox’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Future Is Now (TV series)
  • Alfred Hitchcock Presents
  • The Goldbergs
  • The King Of Comedy
  • Masters of Sex
  • Black-ish
  • The Mindy Project
  • American Horror Story: Apocalypse
  • The Handmaid’s Tale
  • Bitch
  • Gimlet’s Game
  • The Handmaid’s Tale (2018 film)
  • The Kitchen
  • One Mississippi
  • The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story
  • Black
  • Masters of Sex (2017 TV series)
  • Luna Picca
  • Sex Education
  • The Kissing Booth
  • The Deuce
  • The Deuce (TV series)

In addition to her acting career, Kravitz has also designed some of the outfits for her characters. Here she shares the process of taking an outfit and turning it into a costume. Additionally, she’s set to star in the upcoming comedy series, Faking It, alongside Aubrey Plaza and Jane the Virgin’s Justina Matheson. The series is based on the Bridal Set Theory blog, and will explore “gender roles in the modern era.”