Zendaya on the new film Challengers and growing up: “I had to be perfect”

Zendaya has been working in Hollywood since she was 13 years old and got her big break with the role of the drug addict Rue in the TV series Euphoria when she was 23.

During the winter, we have been able to see her play against, among others Timothée Chalamet in Dune: Part twoand right now she is biocurrent in Luca Guadagninos Challengersa love triangle set against a backdrop of tennis.

At the same time, she is an ambassador for brands such as Louis Vuitton, Valentino, Hilfiger, Bulgari and Lancôme. Lack of work is definitely not one of her problems.

Zendaya plays mom in Challengers

When we meet to talk Challengers, which has its Swedish premiere on April 26, she is dressed in a short, yellow knitted dress and has her hair up. She praises the script of the film, which has offered her a lot of challenges.

– Usually I get lost in my thoughts when I read a script. But here it didn’t turn out that way. The script jumped back and forth, it was constantly changing in a way that made me really enjoy reading it.

IN Challengers Zendaya plays the character Tashi, who is a tennis player who is torn between two men, Patrick (Josh O’Connor) and Species (Mike Faist), both talented tennis players. Tashi had a relationship with Patrick, but it broke up. Now she is married to Art and they have a daughter. Tashi, after a serious knee injury, is now her husband’s coach and at a tennis tournament the three meet again – and old feelings are rekindled.

This is the first time Zendaya can be said to carry a movie, and it’s the first time she’s playing a mom.

– I have almost always played teenagers. I’m always in a high school somewhere, me who didn’t even go to high school. This was refreshing but also a little scary. I hope it will be accepted that I play someone my own age, or maybe a little older, because I have friends who have children or are expecting children.

Zendaya on love Tom Holland: “Immensely proud”

She is open about wanting to start a family herself, but notoriously tight-lipped about her now multi-year relationship with the actor Tom Hollandwhom she met during the filming of Spiderman: Homecoming 2017. They have since made two more Spiderman-films together. In a recent interview in Vogue, she opened up a little and said about her boyfriend, who has also become a big star thanks to his Marvel movies:

– I have seen how life has changed for him, but he has taken it well. Now he will play in Romeo and Juliet at the theater in London, and I am very proud. I will try to see as many shows as possible.

But let’s go back in time for a moment. Who is Zendaya?

Her full name is Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman (the name Zendaya means “to show gratitude” in the Shona Bantu language of Zimbabwe). She was born in 1996 and grew up in Oakland, California. Already as a child, she worked as a model and began to do small roles on various theater stages (her mother worked extra at a local theater). She got a role in the Disney series Shake it up, and to make it she moved with her father to Los Angeles. She was in 75 episodes of the series in the years 2010–2013 and during these years also started a successful career as a singer. The music career is currently on hold, she is investing in acting instead.

Very early on, I was the breadwinner in our family

– I don’t know if I could be a pop star. As an actress, I have a kind of anonymity that I like, she says.

In addition, she believes that the music industry often offers traps when it comes to contract writing, in a way that the film industry does not.

Zendaya grew up as a child star

The times I have met her, I have been able to ascertain that Zendaya is an extremely verbal and quick-thinking young woman. She talks a lot, she laughs, she likes to joke with the interviewer: A Norwegian colleague told me that during a TV interview she stood up and straightened his hair.

She has that kind of almost numbing charm that makes it easy to understand that she has become a star, and that many of the big names in the film and television world want to work with her. But it also means that she was forced to grow up fast, something she reflects on in the interview with Vogue:

– I have complicated feelings about this with children and fame and being a public figure or child actor. There have been many cases that have been harmful. And now, as an adult, I’m starting to think, “Okay, come on, I’ve done what I’ve done and that’s all I know.” It’s almost like I’m having my time with teenage angst now, because I haven’t had time with it before. I was thrust into a very grown-up role, very early on I was the breadwinner in our family and there was quite a lot of role switching… It was like I had to be this perfect being and be everything that everyone wanted me to be would be, and live up to all expectations.

When you talk to her, Zendaya feels like a mix of grown woman and carefree teenager, a person who has kept her sanity in a world that is tearing at her. She enjoys challenges – for example, she is a producer for Challengers. And the role also involved physical trials

– I had no idea how to play tennis. It was terrifying and it made me want to make the film. I checked Youtube every single day, there is a lot to see there. And it made me start to love the game. You understand the psychology of the players, and that makes it even more impressive to see how they handle the big pressure.

Zendaya about the third season of the series Euphoria

How does Zendaya herself cope with the pressure she is constantly under – she has hundreds of thousands of followers on social media, wherever she is in the world she meets fans who want an autograph or a selfie. She has said that she feels a certain responsibility when it comes to being accommodating, she knows that it is not least the love of the fans that makes her where she is.

– But at the same time, I’ve learned to say no, to say that today I’m free and I just want time for myself.

And even though Zendaya tries to meet her fans as often as possible, she can’t answer what’s probably their most common question right now: Will there be a third season of Euphoria? She throws out her arms and says:
– Hopefully. I do not know.

Right now, the filming of this third season is at a standstill, and no one seems to know anything, at least officially. When Damernas Värld spoke to last winter Jacob Elordi, another of the series’ main actors, he confirmed that the filming would take place in 2024. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. Fortunately, there is an opportunity to enjoy Zenday’s acting elsewhere, pending an answer.

READ MORE: Zendaya has worn the look of the year at the premiere of “Dune: Part Two” – and it’s only February!

READ MORE: Jacob Elordi: “Euphoria is like a school for actors