Zendaya understands where the backlash is coming from as she has mostly played characters in high school up until this point.
“Malcolm and Marie” has generated career-best reviews for leading actors Zendaya and John David Washington, but it’s also been criticized in some reviews and on social media for featuring 36-year-old Washington and 24-year-old Zendaya as romantic partners. Zendaya can understand why people might be uncomfortable with the 12-year age gap between the actors since her career thus far has been defined by playing characters who are high schoolers (or younger), but the Emmy winner told People magazine that viewers need to remember she’s an adult in real life.
“People often forget — which is understandable because I’ve been playing 16 since I was 16, you know — [but] I am grown,” Zendaya said on “People (the TV Show!).” “I knew that, as I grow and as I evolve, there would be that moment where I could play someone my own age.”
Washington shared similar thoughts on the matter during an interview with Variety earlier this month, saying he “wasn’t concerned” about being 12 years older than Zendaya because the “Euphoria” actress “is a woman.”
“People are going to see in this film how much of a woman she is,” Washington said. “She has far more experience than I do in the industry. I’ve only been in it for seven years. She’s been in it longer, so I’m learning from her. I’m the rookie. I was leaning on her for a lot.”
Washington continued, “Some of the stories she’s shared about what she’s had to go through with Twitter and everything. I appreciated her wisdom and discernment when it comes to this business. I admire that. What I’m really excited for people to see when the film is released — they’re going to see how mature she is in this role. We’re talking about versatility, and Sam and Zendaya brought both.”
“Malcolm and Marie” was made last summer during the height of the pandemic. Netflix picked up distribution rights to the film in September in a deal reportedly worth $30 million. Buzz around the project, plus strong reviews for performance, have thrust Zendaya into the Oscar race for Best Actress. “Malcolm and Marie” begins streaming February 5 on Netflix.
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Category: Projects
I’ve added a bunch of new film stills of Zendaya from Malcolm and Marie. I am sooooo excited for this film!! I’ve also added HD screencaps of Zendaya from the second bridge episode of Euphoria. Also, Malcolm and Marie is featured in the new issue of Entertainment Weekly. I’ve added scans to that in the gallery thanks to Jen. Check out all the lovelies in the gallery.
Malcolm and Marie – Stills – recent additions
Malcolm and Marie – Behind the Scenes
Euphoria Bridge 02 – Screencaps
Entertainment Weekly
Carey Mulligan (“Promising Young Woman”) and Zendaya (“Malcolm & Marie”) sat down for a virtual chat for Variety’s Actors on Actors, presented by Amazon Studios. For more, click here.
In “Promising Young Woman,” Carey Mulligan’s Cassie has been knocked off track by the rape of her best friend, Nina. In the aftermath, Cassie has devoted herself to a life of revenge — but it’s getting her nowhere. Mulligan and Emerald Fennell, the writer-director of “Promising Young Woman,” clearly formed a close bond, which she discusses with Zendaya — who has a similarly simpatico relationship with Sam Levinson, the writer-director of her forthcoming film, “Malcolm & Marie” (and the creator of HBO’s “Euphoria,” for which she won an Emmy in September).
In “Malcolm & Marie” — shot in June and July in Carmel, Calif., under COVID-19 protocols, one of the first films to do so — Zendaya plays the girlfriend of a stubborn director (John David Washington), who stays up late on the night of his premiere to argue (passionately) in the style of a Tennessee Williams play, about his art. And in a move that Marie would approve of, Zendaya asks Mulligan about her calling out Variety’s tone-deaf review of “Promising Young Woman” and our subsequent apology.
Carey Mulligan: I watched “Malcolm & Marie,” and then I started watching “Euphoria,” and I’m geeking out. You’re just so extraordinarily good in both of them. “Malcolm & Marie” is so brilliant and so beautiful. Such an amazing accomplishment in lockdown. What was that like?
Zendaya: I think the No. 1 thing was the ability to do it safely. It started with conversations with Sam Levinson, obviously, who I’m close with and was lucky enough to do “Euphoria” with. “Euphoria” shut down literally the Friday before we were supposed to start on a Monday. So that kind of threw us both for a loop.
I had this thought of like, “Could we just do something in my house?” So we started bouncing ideas around, understanding the parameters — a very small group of people doing something inside a house, or something like that. Then he calls me, and he’s like, “Yo, Z, I got a good one.”
Our producers really did the hard work consulting with different medical professionals and making sure that we had a very, very strict protocol. We created a bubble, essentially, once you were in this place in Carmel. It was a resort, kind of, but it had different houses and was on this huge plot of land with a farm. We brought everything we needed and stayed there.
Mulligan: It’s frightening, honestly, watching you — in a good way. Particularly doing it under the conditions that you were working in, and not having family or friends to go and decompress with.
Zendaya: Being in lockdown, I was definitely itching to do what I love because I hadn’t been able to do it for so long. I had already geared up and was in the headspace of a Season 2 [of “Euphoria”] and that wasn’t happening.
I literally, while I was in quarantine, I would do this thing to keep me motivated. I live with my assistant, who’s also like a brother to me. I told him, “I’ll do some physical activity — I think it’s good for me.” I have a whole bunch of wigs, from many years of being on red carpets, and I would put on a different wig and be a different character every day, and put on this performance for him for like an hour every day.
Mulligan: Wow.
Zendaya: I was just so happy to bring Marie to life with people I really care about. It felt like a safe place. When our dailies got back to us, we were shooting in order, so we’re like, “Did we get that?” We had to watch each other to hold each other accountable.
Mulligan: I’m fascinated by the whole process of it, because it feels like theater. The takes are so long and the cameras outside, and you’re sort of looking in.
Zendaya: My mom worked at the California Shakespeare Theater when I was a kid. I love theater, and that’s where I learned my love for acting. I know you’ve done a lot of theater work.
I’m excited to ask you some questions too. It’s exciting — women being bold and fearless in their artistry. What connected you to [“Promising Young Woman”]?
Mulligan: I actually go a long way back with Emerald Fennell, the director. We worked together when we were both 18. In January 2019, it came to my agent, who gave me no preamble. I was excited to read it, knowing that it was Emerald, and that she was working on “Killing Eve” and knowing her as an actor. I read it in one go and was floored by it. And she sent this playlist along with it, with “Stars Are Blind” by Paris Hilton and “Boys” by Charli XCX. So I met her, like two days later, and then five minutes into the meeting, I was like, “God, I can’t believe you’ll let me into this thing! Yes, please.”
Zendaya: I love when music plays a character in a piece. How did you find Cassie?
Mulligan: It was really a lot of conversation with Emerald. It did feel like a dark comedy, but also a revenge movie — and also kind of a thriller-y thing. It was a real person, and her story felt very real to us. What does female rage look like, and what would you actually do if you were in that position? It was important that we looked at who she was before this event that derailed her life. She’s definitely got hate, she’s got anger, and this is also somebody who’s absolutely point-blank refusing to move on because of her friend who suffered. That felt like the starting place — that this is about sisterhood, and this is about what you do for the person you love.
Zendaya: Recently, you called out a movie review and their criticism — saying that it was sexist. And [Variety] ended up apologizing for it. I just wanted you to speak to that.
Mulligan: I feel it’s important that criticism is constructive. I think it’s important that we are looking at the right things when it comes to work, and we’re looking at the art and we’re looking at the performance. And I don’t think that goes to the appearance of the actor or your personal preference for what an actor does or doesn’t look like — which it felt that that article did. Which for me felt disappointing, because obviously the film is tackling issues around our perceptions and our preconceived ideas about people.
In the broader sense, there’s an element to where we have idealized women on-screen for so long that I think we start to lose sight of what women really look like. When I worked with Steve McQueen on “Shame,” he said, “Really what we’re all doing is holding up a mirror. That’s what we do as storytellers.” And I think if women continually look on-screen and don’t see themselves, that’s not helpful for women or for anyone. So I think in criticizing or bemoaning a lack of attractiveness on my part in a character, it wasn’t a personal slight. It didn’t wound my ego, but it made me concerned that in such a big publication an actress’s appearance could be criticized and it could be accepted as completely reasonable criticism.
It’s important to call out those things, because they seem small and they seem insignificant. People around me at the time said, “Oh, get over it. People love the film.” But it stuck with me, because I think it’s these kind of everyday moments that add up. We start to edit the way that women appear on-screen, and we want them to look a certain way. We want to airbrush them, and we want to make them look perfect. Or we want to edit the way that they work, the way they move and the way that they think and behave. And I think we need to see real women portrayed on-screen in all of their complexity. I felt that it was one small thing to point out that could be helpful.
I didn’t know what the reaction would be to my sort of saying that. Sort of nerve-racking to rock the boat with a big publication. But at the same time it feels like, you’ve got to stand up for these things. Otherwise, it continues and then you’re essentially part of it. So I was really sort of surprised and thrilled and happy to have received an apology. I kind of found it moving, in a way — to draw a line and know that had an impact.
Zendaya: Beautifully said.
Mulligan: If you put your full faith in your director, it gives you sort of freedom, which you clearly have with Sam. I was going to ask how he cast you in “Euphoria.”
Zendaya: I’ve been very lucky, in the sense that every director so far that I worked with — and I’m still getting started — has been lovely. With Sam, I definitely think there’s just like a special connection there. Before “Euphoria,” technically I was still on Disney Channel. He must have seen something in me.
He said that I was on a mood board for Rue. And I was like, “No, you didn’t!” I think there’s something to that kind of faith, and already seeing something in me that I maybe knew was there, but I didn’t ever have the opportunity to explore. I’ve always felt that I could bring things to the table: that I could be creative and free to try things, and put out bad ideas. Because of the Disney kid thing, I get scared of that kind of thing.
Mulligan: You surely can’t think of yourself as a Disney kid now.
Zendaya: The thing is, I am. And to a degree, I am grateful for that. That’s where I started, and I learned so much from that experience. It’s just kind of been this slow progression, and I am happy that it’s all been to prove it to myself and not to anybody else, you know? I embrace it a little bit. It’s part of my heritage to a degree.
Mulligan: I remember seeing your acceptance speech when you won the Emmy for “Euphoria.” You’re the youngest person to win that award. How did that feel?
Zendaya: I was just excited to be involved in the conversation. I was really nervous. And of course, it wasn’t a typical ceremony. But in many ways, I’m grateful for that, because it was really nice having my family around me, quite literally having my back. I felt very safe, even though I was freaking out a little bit. I couldn’t imagine having to go up in front of a big crowd.
Mulligan: Oh, my God. How far through “Spider-Man” —
Zendaya: It’s our third. These things go by so fast. We still have a lot left to do. It’s like running from aliens and things you can’t see. Part of that is kind of fun. A lot of what we do is escapism, just being able to play a teenager again.
Mulligan: Escapism is what we need.
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The Netflix drama Malcolm & Marie, from Euphoria creator Sam Levinson, was one of the first — if not the first — movie that was shot during the coronavirus pandemic. The idea for the movie surfaced after Euphoria shut down production, and Levinson had a conversation with his Emmy-winning star Zendaya about the possibility of making a film during a time when Hollywood was pretty much on hiatus, and Levinson felt a responsibility to get his crew back to work.
“We sort of had to reverse engineer it in a way,” Levinson says during Deadline’s Contenders Film awards-season event, where he was joined by co-stars Zendaya and John David Washington. He explains that he wanted to have solely the two actors, and that at the time the only place they could shoot was in Carmel — the only place in California where one could shoot without a permit on private property.
The film follows the titular couple as they return home from a premiere of Malcolm’s movie. As he waits to see whether his film is a success, things take a turn as revelations about their relationship begin to surface, testing the strength of their love.
“We knew there were certain obstacles we would have to overcome from a pure narrative perspective,” Levinson says. “It would be two actors, one house and the idea [came from] my own life. It may be true that I forgot to thank my wife once at a premiere — which ended up being the jumping-off point for this relationship piece that continues to unravel from there.”
Levinson says he wrote the role of Marie for Zendaya based on what he knew about her as a person; she liked the challenge and was on board from the very beginning. “There were a lot of ideas that went around…and some of them I wasn’t a huge fan of,” Zendaya says, laughing. “He hit me with [Malcolm & Marie] and I immediately fell in love with the challenge [and] the possibilities of what could happen — and this idea of coming into my womanhood as an actress.”
When Levinson wrote Malcolm, he said he could only hear one person’s voice for the role and it was Washington’s. The two-hander is dense with dialogue and emotion that emits Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? energy; there’s nothing to hide behind. Washington feels it was equal parts frightening and liberating as an artist.
“To immerse the two and make it a thought and experience cinematically — I leapt at the chance,” Washington says. “Sam is a brilliant writer, one of the best around, and he beautifully crafted this exhibition of a multi-dimensional relationship.”
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How the two stars quarantined together to make the red-hot romance (out Feb. 5 on Netflix) — while Hollywood was on lockdown.
When Euphoria was forced to postpone production last March due to COVID-19, creator Sam Levinson promptly asked HBO: “Well, can we make a movie?” He’d been deep into daily season 2 discussions with his star, Zendaya, who’d soon net a surprise Emmy win. The creative juices were flowing. They weren’t ready to stop.
The resulting film, Malcolm & Marie, wasn’t backed by Euphoria’s home network, and it came together in secret while the rest of Hollywood shut down. One of the only projects to start and complete production in the early days of the outbreak, the movie began with Levinson and Zendaya bouncing ideas off each other until he had 10 pages of a first draft. The scene: A director forgot to thank his wife at his film’s big premiere, which they’ve just come home from celebrating. (Levinson actually did this, and still feels guilty about it.) The ensuing story was inspired by “films that were contained, yet had dealt with relationships and how we relate to one another inside of an enclosed space,” says Levinson, 36, “which felt apt, given the circumstances of the pandemic.”
Compared with Euphoria’s Rue, Marie “encapsulated more of who I know [Zendaya] to be,” Levinson continues. “This confident, tough woman who was a little bit of a fighter. She’s got opinions; she’s funny, charismatic, radiant.” Zendaya approved. “This was definitely a special departure from anything that I’ve been part of,” the actress, 24, says.
Then came Levinson’s next question: “Who can go toe-to-toe with her?” He thought of the man who would soon be at the center of the movie industry’s most high-profile, high-stakes pandemic-era gamble: John David Washington. “I was a little nervous because I was acutely aware of the fact that he was in the biggest film of the year, and I was about to ask him to be in the smallest film of the year,” Levinson says of the Tenet star.
“I had concerns — and not about the pandemic,” Washington, 36, says of signing on to the project. “I was at such a low. I’m thinking this movie I had, a movie that was supposed to come out at a certain date, a movie I was very proud of — if the movie was ever going to come out! And here’s this opportunity to escape my reality.”
Malcolm & Marie follows the couple over a tumultuous night of arguments, revelations, and passion. Two people, one location — easy enough for a COVID-safe shoot, right? But bare-bones as it may have been, options were limited. “We had to find a place where we could shoot without permits,” says Levinson, who produced the film with Euphoria collaborators Ashley Levinson (his wife) and Kevin Turen. “The only place really in California at that time that you didn’t need a permit to shoot on private property was Carmel. So it had to be in Carmel.”
The rules for the actors were as straightforward as they were strict. “We got tested before we left for Carmel, we got tested when we got there,” says Washington. For 12 days in June, “nobody left the Carmel Valley estate, the lodging. I [thought]: If nobody leaves, we should be pretty good, because we’re basically the only people there.”
Nearly everyone on the skeleton crew needed to wear multiple hats. “I was doing my own hair and makeup, and we didn’t have all the things you would usually have,” Zendaya recalls. “No ADs, or schedules, or script supervisors… There were times when Sam was writing as we were going.”
There was one other complication. “We didn’t really have a third act,” Zendaya deadpans. “[We] were figuring it out as we went. Watching Sam type away, I’ve never experienced anything like that, as far as being so inside the process, literally rewriting scenes with Sam in the middle of shooting.”
Adds Washington, “I’m looking at the way Sam and Zendaya work and they’re like one person. It was very intimidating. I felt myself trying to play catch up the entire time.”
For her part, Zendaya appreciated everything Washington brought as a scene partner. “He’s so talented and detail-oriented and asks all these incredible questions. Both of us in this way, we’re competitive and hardworking, but also very supportive, wanting each other to win and do well. And I think that was so special because you can do a scene and feel like you’re being cheered on, but you’re also being pushed to do better. Because of the level that your creative partner is going.” She then says with a laugh, “He would do his stuff, and I’d be like, ‘Oh s—, well now I better bring it.'”
As Malcolm and Marie tear each other apart, Levinson and the actors mine deep truths about identity, artistry, and love. “There were some triggering things that were happening to me, in the physicality of some of those scenes, that were a bit overwhelming and worked as therapy almost,” Washington says. “I had some breakthroughs, honestly. [I’ll be] appreciative of Sam for that for the rest of my life.” Adds Zendaya: “That process of living inside something all the way through, and being able to be a part of it in every single way, can be equally exciting and terrifying. It’s a big undertaking, to believe in yourself in that way, and it can be scary.”
One of the driving forces for Levinson and Zendaya was being able to employ and empower their Euphoria crew while the rest of Hollywood was on lockdown. Nearly everyone on the film’s set was from the HBO drama and had been out of work. In the spirit of Malcolm & Marie, which is about acknowledging those who help you tell a story, Levinson “wanted to create what we hope is a new paradigm for how films are structured, and how all the people involved in it can have ownership.”
In that sense, at least, the film has already earned a very happy ending: Netflix bought Malcolm & Marie for a reported $30 million in September, just three months after cameras started rolling, setting a Feb. 5 release date. And as Hollywood gets back to work and adjusts to whatever the new normal is, Malcolm & Marie may just wind up leading by example. “I felt like the entire industry was watching us,” Washington admits. Fortunately, they pulled it off.
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I’ve added new photos for Zendaya’s upcoming projects Malcolm and Marie and Dune to the gallery. The new trailer for Malcolm and Marie was released as well which you can check out below. The film will be available on Netflix next month.
I’ve added missing photos of Zendaya from last month’s special Euphoria bridge episode entitled “Trouble Don’t Last Always” (but also known as “Part 1: Rue” to the gallery. What a great episode. Be sure to tune in to the Part 2: Jules bridge episode next Sunday. Enjoy.
“Euphoria” fans will have to wait well into next year for season 2, but in the meantime, HBO has officially confirmed two special episodes of the popular teen drama.
The first is set to air Sunday, Dec. 6 on the premium cabler, before heading to stream on HBO Max. Both episodes were produced under COVID-19 guidelines, according to sources.
Titled “Trouble Don’t Last Always,” the first episode will find Rue (Zendaya) in the aftermath of being left by Jules (Hunter Schafer) at the train station and relapsing. The episode, written and helmed by series creator Sam Levinson, follows Rue as she celebrates Christmas. HBO will reveal the title, plot and date for the second episode at a later date.
News of the specials comes almost exactly a month after Zendaya wowed the TV world with her stunning Emmys win. She will be joined in the first special by Colman Domingo, reprising his role as recovering addict Ali from season 1.
Zendaya confirmed the news via social media, tweeting, “We really missed them. Two special ‘Euphoria episodes coming soon.”
Alongside Levinson, “Euphoria” is executive produced by Ravi Nandan, Kevin Turen, Drake, Future the Prince, Hadas Mozes Lichtenstein, Ron Leshem, Daphna Levin, Tmira Yardeni, Mirit Toovi, Yoram Mokady and Gary Lennon. Will Greenfield serves as a co-executive producer.
The show is produced in partnership with A24 and based on the Israeli series of the same name, which was created by Ron Leshem and Daphna Levin, from Hot. It was nominated for six Emmys total, carrying home three statuettes during the virtual ceremony back in Sept. Other than Zendaya’s performance, “Euphoria” also won for contemporary makeup and original music and lyrics.
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‘Euphoria’ Star Zendaya Becomes Youngest Emmy Winner for Lead Actress in Drama
For the second year in a row, the lead drama actress Emmy has gone to a fresh face: a first-time nominee and the youngest on the ballot: “Euphoria’s” Zendaya.
And Zendaya has made history with this win, not only for becoming the youngest-ever Emmy winner in the category (she turned 24 just a few weeks ago; the incumbent winner Jodie Comer was 26 when she stepped on-stage to accept her statue in 2019), but also for being the second-ever Black woman to win the category, following Viola Davis (“How To Get Away With Murder”), who won in 2015.
She thanked her family, team and “Euphoria” creator Sam Levinson.
“I appreciate you so much; you’re my family,” said Zendaya, addressing Levinson, who based the series on his own battle with drug addiction. “I’m so grateful for Rue. I’m so grateful that you trusted me with your story.”
“I know this feels like a really weird time to be celebrating,” she added. “But I just want to say that there is hope in the young people out there. I know that our TV show doesn’t always feel like a great example of that, but there is hope in the young people. And I just want to say to all my peers out there doing the work in the streets, I see you, I admire you, I thank you.”
Zendaya won for her gritty portrayal of teenage drug addict Rue on the HBO high school drama, and this attention from the Television Academy for it marked her first-ever major awards attention in general.
To come out victorious, Zendaya topped Jennifer Aniston (“The Morning Show”), the aforementioned Comer and her “Killing Eve” co-star Sandra Oh, Olivia Colman (“The Crown”), Laura Linney (“Ozark”) and Zendaya (“Euphoria”).
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Sam Levinson Lockdown-Shot Drama Stars Zendaya & John David Washington
Netflix continues to set the tone for the 2020 Toronto Film Festival Market. Deadline hears that the streamer is wrapping up a deal near $30 million for worldwide rights to Malcolm & Marie, a Sam Levinson-directed romantic drama that stars Zendaya and John David Washington. This follows the around $20 million Netflix deal for the Halle Berry-directed Bruised, the fest’s first major deal made before the film’s premiere. Netflix yesterday acquired Pieces Of A Woman, which won the Best Actress prize for Vanessa Kirby at Venice.
Shot quietly during the production lockdown on 35mm in black and white with help from Fotokem, Malcolm & Marie was the first post-pandemic film to complete production. There was a stampede for this one, and I’m told that others in the mix were HBO, Amazon, Searchlight, MGM, Apple, A24 and Focus Features. While the pandemic seemed likely to throw a wet blanket over a TIFF because most buyers and sellers can’t cross the Canadian border, the market is turning out to be livelier than last year.
Deadline reported in our Toronto curtain raiser that CAA Media Finance and Endeavor Content had screened promo footage on the film for buyers late last week. Sources said the promo reel was about 20 minutes. Washington plays a filmmaker who returns home with his girlfriend (Zendaya) following a celebratory movie premiere as he awaits what’s sure to be imminent critical and financial success. The evening suddenly takes a turn as revelations about their relationships begin to surface, testing the strength of their love.
Malcolm & Marie filmed June 17-July 2 at Feldman Architecture’s Caterpillar House, an environmentally conscious glass architectural marvel in Carmel, CA, in compliance with WGA, DGA and SAG-AFTRA, and extensive COVID-19 safety protocols.
The film came about after Levinson and Zendaya were told their series Euphoria had to shut down. The actress asked Levinson if he would write and direct a movie with her during quarantine. The concept came through quickly as did the script, and they focused on Washington, the fast rising star of BlackKklansman and Tenet.
Netflix confirmed the deal and director, writer and producer Levinson said he was “so grateful to this cast and crew, many of whom are my Euphoria family, for coming together during such uncertain times. We felt privileged to be able to make this film together and we did so with a lot of love. We are all thrilled that it has ended up with Netflix which is unparalleled in allowing filmmakers the freedom to tell their stories that reach audiences all over the world.”
Pic’s produced by Levinson, Kevin Turen and Ashley Levinson of Little Lamb Productions — who are producers on Pieces Of A Woman, which Netflix acquired yesterday. The exec producers are Zendaya, John David Washington, Yariv Milchan, Michael Schaefer, Will Greenfield, Aaron L. Gilbert and Scott Mescudi (aka Kid Cudi). The co-exec producers are Harrison Kreiss, Katia Washington, Stuart Manashil and Kenneth Yu. The DP is Marcell Rév, Michael Grasley is the production designer, Julio C. Perez IV is the editor and Law Roach & Samantha McMillen are the costume designers.
The cast and crew of Malcom & Marie will share a portion of the proceeds of this sale with Feeding America. The film was shot at a modest budget and some of the key below the liners made deals that profit off the back end. The big sale will make that a reality and a big help for a time that work is difficult to find.
Zendaya is repped by CAA, Monster Talent Management and Skrzyniarz & Mallean; John David Washington is repped by WME; Sam Levinson is repped by WME and Novo.
The deal was closed by Endeavor Content and CAA Media Finance, brokering together.
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