Zendaya covers the latest issue of ELLE Magazine. She was photographed by Steven Klein for ELLE.
In her interview, she talks about her acting journey, touching on Euphoria, Spider-Man, and Dune, and her latest role in a tryst drama called Challengers. Zendaya describes this role as her first time truly being a leading lady, playing a quietly cutthroat character involved in a love triangle.
Zendaya reflects on her growth from her younger days in the spotlight, evolving from tween outfits to more sophisticated, Roach-styled ensembles. Now, as she approaches 27, she’s ready for an era of risk-taking and character development.
Zendaya’s strong emotional connection to fashion is influenced by her mother’s own experiences. Her mother, who stands at 6’4″ tall, often had to resort to custom-made clothing due to the lack of options that fit her. This made her feel excluded from enjoying certain fashions and subjected her to comments about her height, which in turn made her self-conscious.
Zendaya reflects, “She was always made to feel like she couldn’t enjoy certain fashions because they literally didn’t make them for her or because people always made comments about her height, and she was self-conscious about it.” Despite this, Zendaya believes that her mother harbored a deep love for fashion that was concealed due to these challenges. Zendaya sees herself as a vessel for her mother’s unexpressed fashion desires and experiments, allowing her mother to live vicariously through her fashion choices.
Zendaya’s new film Challengers hit theaters on September 15, 2023, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film follows, Tashi, a former tennis player turned coach, has transformed her husband from a mediocre player into a world-famous grand slam champion. To jolt him out of his recent losing streak, she makes him play a challenger event — close to the lowest level of the tournament on the pro tour. Tensions soon run high when he finds himself standing across the net from the once-promising, now burnt-out Patrick, his former best friend, and Tashi’s former boyfriend.
Luca Guadagnino is directing the film from a screenplay by Justin Kuritzkes. The film also stars Josh O’Connor, Mike Faist, Scottie DiGiacomo, Faith Fay, Cornel Bradford, Jake Jensen, Keanu Ham, Christine Dye, A.J. Lister, Carlyne Fournier, Joe Curtin, Emelia Camille Harewood, Sid Jarvis, Charles Massey, Sam Xu, Connor Murray, and Cameen M Copeland. The film is rated R in the US by the MPAA for language, sexual content, and graphic nudity.
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