The actress has heard both the praise for her performance and the criticism of the film. She sees it differently.
When Zendaya began production of “Malcolm & Marie,” the made-during-lockdown Netflix drama she stars in with John David Washington, she never imagined that it would spark both strong criticism and award-season buzz. The widespread interest shouldn’t have been such a surprise: last year the 24-year-old became the youngest winner of the Emmy for best actress for her gripping performance as Rue, a struggling teen addict in HBO’s drama series “Euphoria.” She’s now up for a Critics Choice Award for Malcolm & Marie. After production of Season 2 of “Euphoria” was suspended because of the pandemic, Zendaya and the show’s creator, Sam Levinson, wanted to see if they could create a film during quarantine last year. The result was “Malcolm & Marie,” shot at a home in Northern California doubling for Malibu, by a 22-member cast and crew (most of whom worked on “Euphoria”), in just two weeks. “You know, it’s funny, if you would have told us that there would be a conversation around, you know, awards or whatever, that’s crazy! We were all just figuring it out together,” Zendaya said. In the movie, written and directed by Levinson, a filmmaker named Malcolm (Washington) and his girlfriend, Marie (Zendaya), get into a nightlong argument after his movie premiere. Their at-times abusive, monologue-heavy back and forth involves, among other things, his forgetting to thank her for her contributions to his project, which centers on a recovering addict much like Marie. The film’s script was largely panned and set off several discussions on social media about the age difference between the stars (Washington is 36), about a story with Black characters written by a white filmmaker, and about the characters’ toxic romance. “None of us who made the movie think that they’re, like, in a healthy relationship, you know what I mean?” Zendaya said. “I think it was to explore those insecurities and those dark things about ourselves that I think sometimes relationships can bring out of us.” The actress, who also served as a producer on the movie, spoke via video from Atlanta, where she’s filming the next “Spider-Man,” about reactions to the movie and her hope of becoming a filmmaker who creates more roles for Black women. These are edited excerpts from the conversation. What was the driving force that ultimately motivated you to produce and star in a movie during the pandemic? I think it’s often forgotten because obviously we were able to sell it to Netflix, but it really started as this very, very small thing that we were doing. And it was my first time not really having my 9 to 5 [consistent schedule], which I’ve had since I was 13 years old.
