American Woman

Can’t look away from Zoë Kravitz? Neither can the rest of us. She’s an in-demand actress and fashion arbiter with creativity in her blood. And, as Janelle Monáe learns, she also has a lot to say.

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Zoë Kravitz has the kind of magnetism that practically shouts, “This woman is a star!” She’s distractingly, otherworldly beautiful. She’s the spawn of two of the coolest people on the planet, Lisa Bonet and Lenny Kravitz. This is a girl who knows how to milk a step-andrepeat in a slinky white Calvin Klein number and a voluminous ROYGBIV Dior gown with equal aplomb. And she’s a damn talented actress. Which is why, looking back, it’s amazing to consider that for the better part of the last decade, she hovered in a kind of Hollywood up-and-comer limbo, playing supporting roles in blockbusters like the Divergent movies, X-Men: First Class, and Mad Max: Fury Road (a prebreakout part of sorts—she certainly held her own in scenes with the also-so-beautiful-it’s-unfair Rosie Huntington-Whiteley). But inevitably, thankfully, 2017 happened, and with it, Big Little Lies— HBO’s Emmy-crushing miniseries in which Kravitz, 29, played the luminous hippie-turned-hero Bonnie. NowKravitz—in her rightful place on the A-list—is showing no signs of losing ground (she’ll soon appear opposite Johnny Depp in the sequel to the J. K. Rowling adaptation Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, for one).

Kravitz’s friend Janelle Monáe is similarly versed in the art of the well-earned breakthrough, having released her first critically acclaimed album back in 2003 but not reaching household-name status until starring in (and singing on the soundtrack of) 2016’s Hidden Figures. As the daughter of a truck driver and a janitor, the 32-year-old Kansas City native had a markedly different upbringing than Kravitz did. Yet as actor-singers (Kravitz fronts electropop band Lolawolf when she’s not making movies), style savants, and black women in the entertainment industry, Monáe and Kravitz have much in common. Here,