Zendaya landed her big breakout film when she was cast opposite Tom Holland in 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming. However, producer Amy Pascal said neither she nor Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige knew who the star was when she auditioned for the role of MJ.
“She was wearing no makeup and she was just dressed like a regular girl, and we were like, ‘Oh my God, she’s amazing. She has to be in the movie,’” Pascal told Vogue. “And then we found out she was a totally famous person, and felt really stupid.”
In the new interview, Zendaya opened up about her career and revealed how she lost much of her childhood as she became a “breadwinner” for her family.
The Challengers star began acting at a young age in the Disney Channel show Shake It Up. In an interview with Vogue, Zendaya reflected on her childhood as an adult.
“I don’t know how much of a choice I had,” she told the magazine. “I have complicated feelings about kids and fame and being in the public eye, or being a child actor.”
She continued, “We’ve seen a lot of cases of it being detrimental. I think only now, as an adult, am I starting to go, Oh, okay, wait a minute: I’ve only ever done what I’ve known, and this is all I’ve known.”
Zendaya starred in various Disney Channel productions throughout her childhood like Good Luck Charlie, Frenemies, Zapped and K.C. Undercover.
“I felt like I was thrust into a very adult position: I was becoming the breadwinner of my family very early, and there was a lot of role-reversal happening, and just kind of becoming grown, really,” she added.
The star said she had to “live up to all these expectations,” adding pressure to her at such a young age.
“Now, when I have these moments in my career — like, my first time leading a film that’s actually going to be in a theater — I feel like I shrink, and I can’t enjoy all the things that are happening to me,“ she said. “I’m very tense, and I think that I carry that from being a kid and never really having an opportunity to just try s—.”
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