Zendaya Opens up About the Pressure of Playing Rue on 'Euphoria'
“It’s a role that can be intimidating and unnerving,” she says.
Zendaya has become one of this generation’s biggest stars thanks to her breakout role in Euphoria. With playing such an important character comes a lot of pressure and responsibility, according to the actor herself.
“It’s strange, it’s something you try to be aware of, but at the same time, [you] try not to think about it, so as not to go to your head,” she said in a new interview for her Italian Vogue cover. “It’s a role that can be intimidating and unnerving because it makes you feel pressured as you want to do things right, make a lot of people proud. That [being] said, I feel a tremendous sense of gratitude for being in this position.”
Having the opportunity to play Rue, who struggles with drug addiction, anxiety and teenage-related issues, Zendaya feels honored to be able to positively impact others. “Sometimes, being an actress makes me feel a bit ridiculous because after all, it is about to make a living by pretending to be someone else. But then I think about the stories we are telling and why those stories are important,” she said.
Zendaya also emphasized on how her career gives her “purpose.” She added, “In the case of Euphoria, for example, there have been so many people who wrote to let me know that they recognized themselves in the way the series deals with issues such as the sense of loss, addiction, pain, mental illness and the fight against all of them … People find points of contact with the characters that I am lucky enough to play and this creates a strong bond between them and me.”
Seasons 1 and 2 of Euphoria are currently streaming on HBO Max.
