The two-character art film just might win her a Best Actress Oscar nomination.<\/b>
\nThe youngest Best Actress Emmy winner for HBO\u2019s controversial \u201cEuphoria\u201d series, Zendaya reteams with writer-director Sam Levinson for \u201cMalcolm & Marie,\u201d a two-character art film that just might win her a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Born Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman in Oakland, Clif., she\u2019s bonded with Levinson, speaking with him regularly. \u201cThroughout this quarantine Sam\u2019s acted like a creative lighthouse for me to find some kind of hope. Then came this concept, \u2018Could we shoot something in quarantine?\u2019 \u201cSam started coming up with some very interesting ideas. Some of which will never see the light of day!\u201d she said, then laughed. \u201cThat\u2019s how he works.\u201d Soon she got the call. \u201cWhat if,\u201d Levinson asked, \u201cwe get two people, stripped everything away and shoot it in black-and-white ourselves? It\u2019s a couple\u2019s piece that spans a few hours and we shoot in one location.\u201d The premise? \u201cYou have a filmmaker,\u201d he said, \u201ccoming home with his girl from premiering his movie.\u201d It\u2019s hardly a happy homecoming: \u201cHe forgot to thank her. Chaos ensues for however long. By the end of it we don\u2019t really know if they\u2019re going to be together but they turn off the light and go to bed.\u201d Zendaya\u2019s response was instantaneous: \u201cYou got me. Go for it! Let\u2019s do it.\u201d John David Washington (\u201cTenet,\u201d \u201cThe BlacKKKlansman\u201d),36, became the other half of the cast. \u201cI was writing the character of Marie kind of in the way I know Z: confident and funny but tough. Not afraid of a fight,\u201d explained Levinson, whose famous dad is writer-director Barry Levinson. \u201cI knew I was writing this formidable character and JD was the only one I could imagine going toe to toe with her \u2014 and having a sense of humor about it. Because I felt humor was at the core of their relationship.\u201d What the film is tackling is simple human consideration. \u201cThe movie is about,\u201d Zendaya said, \u201cacknowledgement of the people in our lives as creatives who make it possible for us to do what we do.\u201d All Marie wanted of Malcolm \u201cwas a thank you \u2014 an appreciation and acknowledgement that this (movie he\u2019s just shown) came from somewhere. \u201cMaybe if he was a different person she would have been appreciated and valued for what she brought. Not only to the relationship but to his work. \u201cBecause at the end of the day, it is her story (the movie tells). It might not be all her story but a large portion of those moments and those things they shared together, he used.\u201d<\/p>\n