Zendaya On BREAKING Racial Barriers & The Surprising Truth About Her Spider Man Role

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Zendaya is gracing the September issue of Marie Claire this month and she’s also getting candid about being one of the few black actresses in Hollywood and how she won’t let casting boundaries hold her back. Transgender activist Janet Mock interviewed Z for Marie Claire and Zendaya opened up about the unsaid bias in Hollywood against black actresses like her compared to her white counterparts.
She said QUOTE “What my white peers would be able to get away with at this point in their career is not something that I will be able to do. That’s just the truth, and so you’ll be kind of afraid of making mistakes because I love what I do. I don’t want to jeopardize it at any point because I am not allowed the room to mess up.”
Despite these disparities though, it doesn’t stop Zendaya for going after roles that aren’t written for black actresses. And she even goes as far to tell her team to not let scripts define what roles she auditions for. Z said “I always tell my theatrical manager, ‘Anytime it says they’re looking for White girls, send me out. Let me get in the room. Maybe they’ll change their minds,”
And guess what? That was actually the case for Z’s role in Spiderman Homecoming. We all know the comic book genre has struggled to represent the world around us, since most superheroes were written for white male leads. Luckily though, progress is being made, and studios are realizing not every actor has to physically match the character in the comic.
When Zendaya went in to audition for the role of Michelle in Spider-man homecoming, she tried to present herself differently to try and land the role but it turns out that Marvel & Sony had already planned on casting more diverse roles and Zendaya wasn’t really used to no having to fight for a role. She explained QUOTE: “At first I thought I would have to because you’re kind of used to the notion that, OK, even though the character is fictional and could be anybody, they probably are going to go with the standard of what they want and what they’ve always had,” I definitely went into it like, ‘Hopefully they’ll’—as they call it in the industry—’go ethnic.’ I remember making the decision to straighten my hair. I didn’t know that they were going to be more diverse in their casting. I didn’t know that I was walking into a situation where they were already breaking the rules. You get so used to having to break the rules for people.”
I for one can’t wait to see Zendaya in the next Spider-Man Far From Home movie, and I can’t wait to see Zendaya land more roles that break down barriers!
Alright guys I want to turn it over to you now. What do you think about Zendaya’s interview for Marie Claire and are you going to be picking up a copy? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below and when you’re done with that click right over here to see another new video. Thanks for watching Clevver News, I’m your host Naz Perez and I’ll see you guys next time!
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