- Zoë Kravitz told Elle magazine she was trolled for showing too much skin at the 2021 Met Gala.
- She said the reaction to her mesh Yves Saint Laurent gown led her to delete her Instagram photos.
- "I'm a human being. I want to fucking defend myself," she said of the criticism.
Zoë Kravitz said she needed a break from Instagram after she was trolled over her outfit at the 2021 Met Gala in September, according to Elle Magazine.
In an interview with Jessica Herndon for the magazine's March cover, published on Monday, the 33-year-old actress and model said the chainmail gown she wore to the event at the Metropolitan Museum of Art invited criticism from those who thought it was revealing.
This led her to delete all her Instagram photos the following week and take a break from posting on the app, and she posted only once for the remainder of the year, Elle reported. Since then, she has posted on two other occasions to promote her upcoming film, "The Batman."
The publication added that, at the time, Kravitz responded to one Instagram user, writing: "Being uncomfortable with the human body is colonization/brainwashing. It's just a body. We all got em."
Speaking to Herndon about the criticism she received, Kravitz said: "The fact that people don't think what they say affects a celebrity because you're not a person to them is crazy."
She added: "I'm a human being. I want to fucking defend myself."
According to Vogue, the silver Yves Saint Laurent dress with a halterneck and back slit had a diamond pattern with the YSL logo in the center of every other row of diamonds. She paired the look with black sandals and Jessica McCormack diamond jewelry. Vogue likened the look to Kendal Jenner's sheer beige Givenchy fishtail dress with encrusted rhinestones.
Touching on her initial reaction to comments that she showed too much skin, Kravitz recalled wondering if she should not have worn the dress before doubling down: "No, I do what I want to do, and I make what I want to make, and if I'm now starting to be afraid of what other people are going to say or think, I'm no longer doing my job as an artist. I'm not experiencing the world and putting that into art."
"I'm walking on eggshells. Fuck that. So, I needed to take a minute," she added.
Representatives for Kravitz did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.