Zendaya’s trip to Paris Fashion Week was so quick it felt like a dream. “I don’t think I was there long enough to get jet lag,” she tells Vanity Fair. But still, Zendaya made quite the impression sitting front row at the Louis Vuitton show, setting the internet ablaze with her bubble skirt and structured blazer—although she’d be the last to know it. “I kind of stay away from it,” she says of the online fashion discourse. “I get things through secondhand information. My mom will be like, ‘Oh my God, I loved your outfit.’ I was like, ‘Oh, you saw it?’ And she’d be like, ‘Yeah, girl. What?’” Filling in Zendaya is a trait that runs in the family. “My grandma notoriously knows my schedule better than I do, because she follows everything about me online,” she says. “I’ll call her and she’ll be like, ‘Well, you actually can’t come to this thing because you’re shooting this on then.’ I’m like, ‘How do you know that?’”
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Grandma certainly had her hands full keeping up with Zendaya this year. Long after establishing herself as a TV darling and taking home two leading-actress Emmys for her role as Rue in Euphoria, Zendaya proved she’s a bona fide movie star. In March, she reprised her role as Chani, the rebellious love interest to Timothée Chalamet’s messianic Paul for part two of Denis Villeneuve’s Oscar-winning sci-fi franchise, Dune. Just two months later, she served, both physically and metaphorically, in Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers. That movie was a grand slam—the rare critical and commercial success that exceeded expectations at the box office (to date, it’s made almost $100 million worldwide on a $55 million budget). As teen tennis star turned messy professional coach Tashi Duncan, Zendaya commanded both the screen and her sparring partners, Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) and Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor), as the focal point of the summer’s hottest love triangle.
“What I’ve been really lucky with is working with great filmmakers and great collaborators, people who really support your ideas, and help guide you as well in the process,” she says. We’re thrilled to have Zendaya as part of our 2025 Hollywood Issue. Here’s more from her conversation with VF.
Vanity Fair: You’re a fashion icon. You take big swings. Do you ever feel any anxiety about your outfits?
Zendaya: Sometimes, for sure. I also think that fashion, in many ways, is a tool for me. I consider myself a shyer person, which I guess you wouldn’t quite realize from the crazy, sometimes ridiculous things that I wear. But it’s my armor. I can fall into these characters. Law [Roach] and I like to create these other people. Sometimes we name them—no, I’m kidding…well, sometimes we do. [Laughs.] We give them little backstories. But it’s true, it does help to create this little persona every time you come out. I just embody this girl—whoever this woman is tonight. It makes the whole process easier because it’s not yourself; it’s a version of yourself. It feels less like “What am I doing?,” and more, “This is really cool and fun.” It’s almost like a little acting exercise.
I have to say this before we go on: We have the same birthday, September 1.
September 1, let’s go! Great day.
Do you have any Virgo traits?
Very much so. I deeply relate. Do you?
Oh yeah. Wanting to be in control.
Oh my God, yeah. But I’m learning how to deal with that. I think why I enjoy my job so much is because there’s a certain level of release of control you can have when you’re playing someone that’s not yourself. You can be like, “Actually, I wouldn’t make this decision. I wouldn’t make this choice, so whatever.” I can get lost in somebody else’s decisions and choices and not be so critical of myself because it’s not me.
Now that we’re a bit removed from the Challengers moment, how does it feel to be a part of such a cultural phenomenon?
Honestly, I’m glad that people connected with it in a deeper sense. There’s the funny stuff. People are like, “Oh my God, the churro scene.” But while they can appreciate the aesthetic of it, they can also appreciate Luca’s work. I’ve seen a lot of people talk about the beautiful camera work by Sayombhu [Mukdeeprom], and emotionally tracking the characters. Picking up little things like when they’re sharing T-shirts, and [who the] T-shirt belongs to. People not only being able to enjoy it and have fun, but also really give a fuck about it in a deeper sense, which is cool.
Do you, Josh, and Mike still keep up with one another? Is there a group text?
There’s a group chat. I say I’m the mom of the group because I’m always like, “Hey guys, checking in. Hope you’re okay.” And to give them credit they do respond. Mike’s the worst at responding, but we let that go.
I’m really lucky because they are just the most lovely guys. When you’re in a film like that, where it’s really just the three of us and the characters are also intimately involved and emotionally intertwined with each other, it’s really important that whoever you’re acting beside not only is talented, which they clearly obviously are, but is also lovely and makes you feel safe and supported as a scene partner. They both definitely offered that space.
We also had a lot of fun. We all appreciate and take our jobs seriously, [but] not too seriously, you know what I mean? We still enjoy the process. We can laugh and have fun, and joke around and also still be present when we need to. It was nice to have that levity. Man, I felt so bad with Josh. I was like, “I’m constantly just slapping you, and spitting on you. This is just so awful, I’m so sorry.” He was just so cool about it. I’m like, “Goodness, girl, you gotta keep your hands off people.”
This year you had both Dune: Part Two and Challengers. Do you change your approach to material given the genre? What’s your process like?
I don’t know if I have a particular process. With Challengers specifically, we had a lot of rehearsal time, which was really special. We got to see how Luca saw the film, how he saw the characters, and actually just sit down and talk about it, run through the scenes with the boys as well. There was nobody better to tackle this than Luca. He just immediately understood these people in a way where there was absolutely no judgment. He was on all of their sides.
I think Denis is the same. It’s obviously different because I’m not involved in the same kind of intimate way as Challengers. But it’s still this massive, massive thing, and you’re just like, “How am I even going to tackle this or even fit into this?” But Denis has such an indie-filmmaker sensibility. He finds a way to make the really big things feel small, feel intimate, and feel very human. And he is very easy to talk to as well. So with my process, I think it just depends on who I’m working with.
To me, a movie star is someone who makes the big projects feel small, and the smaller projects feel big. Do you care about the idea of movie stardom?
Obviously, the landscape has changed. Our industry is different with streaming and social media. I don’t really necessarily try to think about that aspect too much. What I do think about is something that I think is important: trying to keep movies in theaters. There’s a lot of people whose job it is to work at a movie theater. And there’s a lot of smaller, family-owned theaters all over the place that we want to still exist. I think there’s something so special about going to a movie theater and experiencing a film in that way, with a group of strangers. I grew up spending all day at the movie theater. That’s all there was to do in the early 2000s after school. You’re just like, “I’ll meet you at the movies. Let’s go see whatever’s out.” So that’s what I try to focus on—still being able to have that moviegoing experience for people and keep that going. With that comes, “Okay, well, we’ve got to do a lot of press then. We’re going to have to wear some intense fits to get people to go.”
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Making these movies takes time and takes you away from other projects. Obviously, Euphoria is in a delayed spot.
I will say, I have been off for a couple years, so not delayed because of my…I’ve been open, just waiting. [Laughs.] I’ve been waiting. I’m actually going to start filming a project soon before Euphoria, and I’m like, Man, I’m rusty. I haven’t been on a set in, like, two years almost. I’m a little bit terrified. I’m like, Can I even do this anymore? I don’t know.
To be fair, I get that feeling every time I go onto a new project. You’re always like, What am I even doing? On that first day on set, you’re like, I was terrible. I was shit. Everyone hates me. I’m going to get fired tomorrow. And when the director’s like, “You did a great job,” you’re like, “You’re lying. You’re actually lying to me.” But that’s just part of, again, the Virgo self-criticism.
Where do you stand with Euphoria and Sam Levinson?
[Euphoria] is slated for January, I believe. I haven’t read anything yet, but I’m excited to see what everyone has been working on, and what the future looks like for Euphoria. I don’t really have much of an answer except for right now it’s set to start shooting in January. My most important thing is to do justice by the people who love and care about Rue, and make sure that she’s looked after as a character. I think that’s my number one duty.
You met your partner, Tom Holland, while filming Spider-Man. Is it ever weird acting opposite each other?
Not really. It’s actually strangely comfortable. It’s like second nature, if anything. You feel extra safe with the person you’re acting beside. I love working with him. He’s so talented, and so passionate about what he does. He always gives things one thousand percent, even if he’s absolutely worn down. I really appreciate that about him. It feels pretty normal. That’s how we met. Literally, at a chemistry read.
You’ve been in the industry since you were a kid, and you’re not defined by a genre or type. How do you make choices, and how do you keep it fresh for yourself?
It’s not a strategic thing. I feel like the right parts find you in the same way you find them. Sometimes you might be developing something and it just falls through. I remember many years ago, there was a project I was working on that fell through. We were supposed to shoot, and then a month before, it fell apart. And then I got this script for Euphoria, and that ended up shooting in its slot. I was like, “Oh my God, thank God that movie fell apart!” But at the time we were like, “Shit.” There was really a reason for all of it. I try to go with my feelings. Honestly, it’s really hard to get me to finish a script, because I get sidetracked really easily. When something can make me read it to the end and keeps me engaged, then I know that it’s something that I want to do.
How do you feel about all of your many memes?
Man, sometimes people do take the funniest screenshots of me. I can’t help it. I don’t know if it’s a Disney thing or just a personality thing, because I think I was expressive like this even when I was a kid. And I don’t know, I laugh big. I have a big laugh. I open my mouth real wide when I laugh. So there’s a lot of those. And I use my face. If it brings people joy, then I love it. Screenshot away.
I will say I did grow up watching Raven-Symoné, who I think is one of the queens of facial expression. [Breaks into a Raven-Symoné impression] “Ya nasty.” You know what I’m saying? [Laughs.] It’s in me. I grew up like this. She was so phenomenal. What I appreciate about her comedy in that show is you can watch it now and it holds up. My little niece is…is she eight now? I had her watch Cheetah Girls for the first time the other day.
I used to be a Cheetah Girl myself. Literally, with my three friends in school, we were the Cheetah Girls. We would rehearse outside because there were sliding-glass windows in the auditorium, and we would rehearse in our reflection. We tried to audition other girls. It was really serious. We did a performance for Grandparents Day. It was real.
Did your niece love it?
To be honest, she was like, “Why are you so into it?” I was doing the dances, the whole thing. [Sings,] “I don’t want to be like Cinderella.” She was like, “Umm…Auntie. Girl. Calm down.”
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. For fashion and beauty details, go to VF.com/credits.
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