Zendaya Was Seriously Stressed Before She Was Cast in ‘Euphoria’; ‘I Wasn’t Connecting to Anything’
When Zendaya officially closed the book on the Disney chapter of her career, fans were chomping at the bit to see what she would do next. Though she’d ventured beyond Disney for The Greatest Showman and Spider-Man: Far From Home, fans knew that her first official post-Disney project could set the stage for her adult career. Enter Euphoria, a wildly popular HBO drama that has allowed Zendaya to be viewed in a whole new way.
In Euphoria, Zendaya plays a teenager learning to navigate adolescence with the added challenges of be a drug addict. Though playing Rue is a far cry from her Disney days, Zendaya is truly exceptional in the role. In fact, playing Rue earned the actor her first Emmy nomination and win for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. But just how did Zendaya land on Euphoria? In an interview with Collider, the “Replay” singer revealed that she struggled to find the right project before she stumbled upon Euphoria.
Zendaya struggled to find the right project after she retired from Disney
“I had all of these ideas in my head about what the next move should be, and there was nothing that I felt like I was connecting with,” Zendaya confessed about trying to find projects before landing on Euphoria. “I was starting to stress and bug out because I just didn’t have anything, and nothing was connecting with me. I didn’t want to just say yes to a shitty project because I didn’t have anything else. So, I was just waiting, and other things fell through.”
Zendaya continued on to share that eventually Euphoria came along and she immediately knew she needed to be a part of it. “Everything was just not going right,” the actor shared. “And then, Euphoria came along. When I read it, I immediately just loved it. There’s no other way to put it. I just fell in love with the script, and I fell in love with Rue and all of the characters. I wanted to know more about them and about their lives. I wanted them to be OK. I just wanted to be a part of that world of Euphoria. All of those thoughts went out of my head, and I just knew I wanted to be a part of this project.”
How Zendaya knew she was meant to be in the ‘Euphoria’ cast
Zendaya added that she knew the project was for her because she never felt any amount of stress about it. “I can stress,” the Emmy Award-winning actor confessed. “I stress in silence. Nobody will ever know ‘cause I’m a very calm person, but I will be stressed and pressed, to no end because my mind is constantly doing these equations for the good and bad outcome of everything. So, the sheer fact that I did not have that stress, the entire time, even when we were shooting this show, I was able to fully just let myself go into the show and enjoy every moment of it. Clearly, this is where I need to be, and this is what I was destined to be doing, at this time.”
When can fans expect new episodes of ‘Euphoria’?
We’re sure fans of Zendaya and Euphoria are thrilled that the stars aligned for the actor to work on the show. While production for season 2 is on hold thanks to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the first of two bridge episodes is premiering on HBO on December 6, 2020.
