Taglines: Every woman needs an escape.
The seemingly lush, well-ordered life of Zoe Reynard spins frenetically out of control when she is drawn into a passionate escape from her everyday world in ADDICTED, the first major feature film adapted from the work of Zane — the best-selling author dubbed “the queen of erotica.” Based on Zane’s very first novel, ADDICTED is the simultaneously provocative, suspenseful and emotional story of a happily married, highly successful businesswoman who unexpectedly finds herself crossing the line, only to become entangled in a sticky web of heated affairs that endanger everything she loves.
ADDICTED kicked off a series of novels by Zane that, over the last decade, have carved out a provocatively candid view of women in a way they’ve not often been seen: as fiercely independent and unapologetically sexual, with complex desires that can be as risky as they are compelling. Now, for the first time Zane’s alternately juicy and truthful insights into women’s romantic and sensual lives comes to the movies in a scorching thriller.
Director Bille Woodruff (HONEY, “The Game”) brings together the volatile chemistry of Sharon Leal (DREAMGIRLS) with Boris Kodjoe (LOVE & BASKETBALL, “Soul Food”), William Levy (THE SINGLE MOMS CLUB, “Dancing With The Stars”) and top male model Tyson Beckford in this story of desire inside and outside of marriage, and in and out of the usual bounds of restraint.
Though infidelity gone wrong is a theme that has been taken up in thrillers ranging from Golden Age film noirs to FATAL ATTRACTION, ADDICTED turns the typical storyline on its head: putting a powerful woman at the center of its journey into sexual and marital jeopardy.
“Telling this kind of story from a female point of view makes it fresh. We’ve seen the male POV on the sexual thriller in every kind of way. But this is a different and exciting take all its own,” says Paul Hall, who serves as producer.
The Uninhibited World of Zane
For Zane, ADDICTED turned out to be a breakout novel. Not only did the book blaze a new trail for women’s erotic fiction, it was also the spark that lit dozens more best sellers, as well as a popular social network and two steamy Cinemax series. Most of it all, it forged Zane’s reputation for crafting raw, candid, humor-and-suspense-filled stories that finally broke open taboo conversations about women’s fantasies, impulses and real sex lives.
The mother of three children, who got her start writing edgy stories for her own enjoyment, Zane has been a pioneer on multiple fronts. She is one of only a few African-American women to make the New York Times fiction bestseller “print list” in this century. Yet she says she never anticipated the degree to which she would tap into an unaddressed need for the kind of stories few others were telling. Her stories were a way of expressing something honest about life, including the sexual parts of life, she says, and the idea that others found them sensual adventures took her by surprise.
“Believe it or not, I never imagined ADDICTED would be a published book let alone a movie because at the time that I wrote it, I was mostly writing to entertain myself,” she confesses. “But I knew I wanted to write a story about how what happens to us in childhood affects our adult lives. I also wanted to write about a woman in therapy, because it’s still considered a stigma in the African-American community.”
She goes on: “And I also really wanted to talk more about how women truly do have needs and desires just like men do — but these desires too often are not even mentioned, let alone addressed. There are still a lot of double standards when it comes to women. So I started writing about this woman named Zoe who was married and doing the most, but was unable to talk to her husband about her desires.”
Zoe’s long-suppressed impulses drive her to endanger herself, the business she has worked so diligently to build and the family that is her very sustenance. Yet, Zane ultimately sees her as a courageous woman – one who must better understand herself and the roots of what turns out to be a sexual addiction if she has any hope of saving her marriage and her life.
“Even though Zoe can seem like the weakest link in ADDICTED, I always felt she was really the strongest character in the story,” the author explains. “She’s the one who ultimately finds the strength to confront her issues head-on. Lots of people try to cope with things instead of really resolving them. But every day is a gift and every day is a great opportunity to make a change in your life – and that’s what comes through to Zoe.”
The degree to which readers embraced ADDICTED was unanticipated but enormously gratifying to Zane. She became increasingly aware of how few outlets women have to talk about – and immerse themselves in — the most hidden, passionate aspects of their lives. “I started meeting women who had read the book and fell into my arms crying because they related to Zoe. I also saw people getting into intense arguments about Zoe’s actions so I knew these characters had truly become real to people,” Zane recalls.
As for why her characters have touched so many, Zane offers: “I think everyone is interested in personal relationships and no one has a completely perfect marriage. I know so many extremely successful women – corporate leaders, celebrities, powerful women – who are in complicated or toxic relationships. The truth is, no matter who you are, no one ever gets over that need to be loved, that hope for someone who understands you at every level.”
Although talk of turning ADDICTED into a movie began almost as soon as the book was published, Zane is thrilled with the way it has finally become a reality. “One of the things that most excites me is that I think this will be quite cutting edge for an African-American film,” she concludes. “Bille Woodruff understood exactly what the book was trying to get across and then he brought it together with an incredible cast and a very committed studio in Lionsgate. I really can’t wait for people to see it.”
Zane at the Movies
It was the way Zane mixed such palpably familiar characters into some of life’s most tempting, provocative and unsettling situations that drew director Bille Woodruff to commit to the taboo-busting project.
He began by exploring the broad appeal of her books. “Zane’s books have spoken to a huge audience who want to be addressed,” the director observes. “I think we’re entering a time when audiences are more interested than ever to see women’s sexual empowerment explored in new and different ways, so it seemed that the script for ADDICTED came along at just the right moment.”
The script by Christina Welsh and Ernie Barbarash focused in on ADDICTED’s alluring lead character, Zoe Reynard, whose picture perfect world begins to unravel, strand by strand, when she is tempted to step out on a beautiful marriage she doesn’t want to lose. As Zane had so deftly done, the screenplay took a fevered look inside Zoe’s most covert drives, even as they lead her into a shocking self-confrontation and a potentially deadly situation.
“It’s a story that is by turns sexy, scary, titillating and revealing,” says Woodruff. “But most of all I felt the story of ADDICTED was about a marriage in terrible danger and how both Zoe and her husband Jason have to fight together to save it.”
He was also drawn to elements of the story that break open myths. “The story is edgy and it’s entertaining, but it also deals with an issue in sex addiction that is very real and I found it compelling that Zoe takes the step of going to a therapist, which is often seen as taboo in the African-American community,” Woodruff says. “It’s an erotic thriller on one level, but I think it will also start some important and interesting conversations.”
For producer Paul Hall, Woodruff was just the right director to balance the twists of the story with the spirit of Zane’s unabashed explorations into the full spectrum of feminine sexual experiences. “Bille works extremely well with women, which he exemplified earlier in HONEY and BEAUTY SHOP, and with this film, I think he’s really been able to capture the female perspective. At the same time, he works equally well with men,” says Hall. “This was a real chance for him to take his skills in a new direction.”
To bring the story to life, Woodruff knew the most essential element would be casting –finding just the right mix of volatile physical and emotional chemistry between the leads.
Addicted
Directed by: Bille Woodruff
Starring: Sharon Leal, Boris Kodjoe, John Newberg, Cameron Mills, Emayatzy Corinealdi, Kat Graham, Maria Howell, Omer Mughal
Screenplay by: Christina Welsh, Ernie Barbarash
Production Design by: Jeffrey Pratt Gordon
Cinematography by: Joseph White
Film Editing by: Bruce Cannon
Costume Design by: Lorraine Coppin
Set Decoration by: Sarah Carter
Music by: Aaron Zigman
MPAA Rating: R for strong sexual content, nudity, language and brief drug use.
Studio: Lionsgate Films
Release Date: October 10, 2014
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