Zoë Kravitz says she was sexually harassed by a director when she was 19

The actor, 29, says a director once made her feel "very uncomfortable" by asking to come inside her hotel room at the start of her career

Zoe Kravitz at the Met Gala, 2018 (Getty)

Zoë Kravitz has spoken about the time she was sexually harassed by a director at the beginning of her career in film.

The 29-year-old actor, who appears on the cover of Rolling Stone‘s November issue, told the magazine that the director — whom she did not name — made her feel “very uncomfortable” due to his “totally inappropriate” behaviour on set.

“I won’t name names, because I don’t want to ruin anyone’s life,” she said. “But I definitely worked with a director who made me very uncomfortable. I was young — maybe 19 or 20 — and we were on location, staying at the same hotel. And it was full-on: ‘Can I come inside your room?’ Just totally inappropriate.”

The harassment also took place when Kravitz was getting her hair and make-up done ahead of filming, she said. “And then he’d do things like come to the makeup trailer and touch my hair. Or say, ‘Let me see your costume — turn around?’ It’s just never OK for someone to do that. Especially when they’re in a position of power.”

Kravitz, who is the daughter of musician Lenny Kravitz and actress Lisa Bonet, paid tribute to her mother by posing for her own version of Bonet’s iconic 1988 Rolling Stone cover. Bonet, who was two months pregnant with her daughter at the time, posed almost nude, wearing only a shirt. Another shot where she appeared fully nude was shown inside the magazine.

30 years later, Kravitz decided to appear fully naked on her own cover — something she said her mother wished she could have done at the time.

“I think she was a little bummed when they used the shirt picture as the cover,” she told the magazine. “I think she just thought, ‘I’m doing it, let’s do it!’”

With her own cover, Kravitz, who plays Leta Lestrange in the upcoming Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, hoped to make her mother’s dream come true. “It’s less about the picture and more about doing the thing my mom intended to do,” she said of the shot. ”That feels cool.”

Back when Bonet’s cover was released, she was starring in A Different World, a spin-off of The Cosby Show. Bonet, who referred to Cosby as “Mr. Righteous”, was written off the sitcom after one season, following the announcement of her pregnancy. She briefly came back on The Cosby Show before making a final exit.

“Her and him never got along,” Kravitz told Rolling Stone of her mother and Cosby. “Whether he was attracted to her, or he resented her having a mind of her own, she always got a weird vibe from him. A dark vibe.”