Zendaya on Euphoria and her romance with Tom Holland: the Dune star opens up about love, growing up, her history-making second Emmy Award and being an inspiration to young women everywhere – interview

Oct 9 , 2022

Why Zendaya is Hollywood’s biggest rising star: HBO’s Euphoria, 2021 hit films Spider-Man: No Way Home with BF Tom Holland and the Oscar-nominated Dune, and Netflix lockdown film Malcom & Marie. Photo: Bulgari

After debuting in Disney’s Shake It Up opposite Bella Thorne, last year Zendaya went on to star in blockbusters Dune and Spider-Man: No Way Home – starring alongside boyfriend Tom Holland

She persuaded Sam Levinson to make Netflix’s Malcolm & Marie in lockdown, and just became the first black woman to win two Emmys, for playing Rue in gritty addiction drama Euphoria

It’s been a spectacular last two years in the life of Zendaya, the talented and fearless former Disney princess who has lately emerged as one of Hollywood’s top female stars.

This September she became the first black woman to win two Emmys when she took home the trophy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her work as recovering addict Rue in Euphoria. She bagged her first Emmy for the same role in 2020 which is also a rarely accomplished feat.

From left, Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya, Javier Bardem and Timothée Chalamet in the 2021 sci-fi blockbuster Dune. Photo: Chia Bella James

The honour capped off an extraordinary run of success for the graceful, 1.78-metre mononymous beauty, fresh from rave reviews for her performance in 2021’s Oscar-nominated sci-fi epic Dune. Last year also saw her appear in another blockbuster, Spider-Man: No Way Home, following which it was revealed that she and co-star Tom Holland had fallen in love, a relationship that is still ongoing.

Currently filming Dune: Part Two, in which she now plays the female lead, the 26-year-old is arguably the hottest young actress in Hollywood.

I want to continue to be a woman who paves the way for other young women

Zendaya

Building Euphoria

“Finding a passion, finding something that gives you purpose … is an extraordinary thing,” she explains. In the aftermath of her second Emmy win, she spoke of how deeply the gritty drama series has affected her.

“Euphoria has given me a tremendous amount of purpose. I really, really love what I do … and the amount of stories and messages I have received since Euphoria has come out is the whole reason why we do this.

Zendaya made history by winning the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for Euphoria for the second time. Photo: AFP

“I love Rue and care about her deeply. I also care about the people who care about her, because I think many of them share her story of addiction and sobriety, many of them share a lot of her emotional disorders … and many of them have felt this deep connection with Rue and have shared their very painful stories with me.”

Euphoria is a sexually explicit series that airs on HBO, with Rue a young woman battling with obsessive-compulsive disorder and drug addiction. In portraying her character’s harrowing struggles, Zendaya was forced to plunge herself into difficult psychological territory to evoke the extreme range of emotions that Rue experiences.