Channing Tatum Says He “Didn’t Really Know” Zoë Kravitz Before She Sent Him ‘Blink Twice’ Script, With an Assist From Riley Keough

Channing Tatum and Zoë Kravitz are now engaged and releasing Blink Twice , the movie she directed and he stars in — but it turns out the two had never met before Kravitz sent Tatum the script, which she also co-wrote.

'Big Little Lies' Ladies Support Zoë Kravitz at 'Blink Twice,' 'It Ends With Us' Arrives in NYC and This Week's Best Events

“It was pretty crazy, I didn’t really know Zoë before she sent me the script. I never had met her before — I got a text from Riley Keough, she’s like, ‘Hey, my friend Zoë wants to send you a script.’ I was like, ‘Great, I love Zoë as an actress, I’d love to act with her.’ I didn’t know she wanted to make this thing,” Tatum told The Hollywood Reporter at the film’s Los Angeles premiere on Thursday.

She sent over the script — under the movie’s original title Pussy Island — “and I was like, ‘OK, Zoë Kravitz is sending me something called Pussy Island , I think I should probably read this.’ And that was like six years ago, and it’s been just such a journey,” he continued. “The script from the first time I read it has changed so much, from the first time we even shot it and edited it has changed so much — she’s truly going on a beautiful first-time director’s journey.”

Tatum — who received a special thank you from Kravitz during her speech at the premiere — said of watching her direct, “She’s just an obsessive person, in the best possible way. And 360, she’s not just worried about the way it looks or the way the actors are playing their parts — it’s down from the floor to the ceiling, she just doesn’t ever stop. That I think I was more in awe of than anything. I knew she was creative, I knew she had taste, I knew she knew how to act and how to direct actors, and she obviously has visual aesthetic.”

Blink Twice is a psychological thriller that stars Tatum as Slater King, a tech billionaire who meets cocktail waitress Frida (Naomi Ackie) at his fundraising gala. He invites her to join him and his friends on a vacation to his private island, where things begin to go awry. Adria Arjona, Simon Rex, Alia Shawkat, Haley Joel Osment, Christian Slater and Genna Davis make up the starry supporting cast.

Zoë Kravitz Thanks Channing Tatum for "Trusting Me to Female Direct You" at 'Blink Twice' Premiere

Ackie echoed Tatum’s praise of Kravitz, saying, they “talked to the point where we had a real shorthand, a real understanding of what needed to be achieved,” so much so that “when Zoë said, ‘Action’ for the first time, it was like right let’s go, we know what we’re doing. There was a confidence there that sometimes is hard to attain. I felt confident from the beginning, and that’s not normal for me.”

Ackie added that with Kravitz as a performer herself, “She speaks in a way to an actor that helps you. Sometimes, depending on who it is, it’s from their brain and it’s hard to communicate, but an amazing director will know how to communicate exactly what they need to get something of you — and she knew exactly how to do that.”

Blink Twice hits theaters on Aug. 23.

Jamie Lee Curtis on Newfound Friendship With 'Borderlands' Co-Star Cate Blanchett: "She's a Beautiful Person"