With ‘Rivals’ and ‘Dune: Part 2’, 2024 is Zendaya’s year in theaters: ‘very honored’, says the actress | Movie theater

Zendaya comments on ‘Rivals’, ‘Dune Part 2’ and chemistry with co-stars

It seems, 2024 is Zendaya’s year in cinema. With her new film, “Rivals,” the 27-year-old actress is receiving enough critical acclaim for her name to be the first in the (premature) Oscar race.

At premiere this Thursday (25)from director Luca Guadagnino (“Call Me By Your Name”), the American plays a great tennis promise frustrated by an injury and divided by a tense (and hot) love triangle.

That’s not all, however. She is still one of the stars of “Dune: Part 2”, the highest-grossing film of the year so far, with almost US$700 million in revenue and a likely sequel in development.

In an interview with g1, Zendaya herself laughs at the question, but doesn’t deny it. Watch the video above.

“I feel incredibly grateful to be a part of two films that I’m very proud and lucky to be a part of, with very talented people,” she says, sitting next to her co-stars and “rivals”, Mike Faist (“Love, sublime love”) and Josh O’Connor (“The crown”).

“These two. Luca, Justin (Kuritzkes, the screenwriter), Denis (Villeneuve, director of ‘Dune’). The list goes on and on. I feel very honored.”

The script by the playwright who makes his film debut follows three young players in two different moments. In the first, when the two boys compete for the attention of the great promise.

The second, woven into the story in a non-linear way, years later, with the former athlete away from the court due to an injury and married to one of her former suitors (and now renowned champion).

It is, by far, the sexiest plot the actress has ever starred in – a natural (and better) evolution of “Malcolm & Marie” (2021), a film recorded during the pandemic lockdown and directed by the creator of “Euphoria”, Sam Levinson .

Much of the sensuality was already in the script, which made her unable to stop reading. “And it’s not always easy to get myself to sit down and actually read a damn script,” she assures.

But a large part is also the merit of the director.

“I think there is no better person to be able to extract these moments – not only what is on the page, but what is implied as well – than Luca Guadagnino. I think he has a very beautiful sensitivity for characters and human interactions”, says Zendaya.

“I don’t know if it’s how he kind of focuses on the characters, or the performances. I don’t know if it’s the way he positions the camera, or how he chooses to linger on the characters for a little longer. Whatever it is, I think that he’s brilliant at creating that energy between the characters.”

Winner of two Emmy awards for best actress – the first time, in 2020, which made her the youngest winner in the category, at 24 years old – for Levinson’s series, Zendaya still does not share the same prestige in films.

Approved by 95% of the 129 reviews on the aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, “Rivals” has everything it takes to change that status. At this point, it’s hard to say who would benefit more from an Oscar nomination, her or the Academy.

Zendaya began her career as an actress at the age of 14, on the Disney Channel series “No Pace”, despite some roles in the theater where her mother worked.

She was already a star on the channel when she made her film debut, in “Spider-Man: Back Home” (2017) – where she met her current boyfriend, fellow actor Tom Holland.

In 2022, already considered a fashion icon, she was one of “Time” magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world.

And even postponing the third season of “Euphoria” indefinitely could be a good thing. After all, the actress has now been released by HBO to focus on her film career.

To promote “Rivals”, Zendaya, Faist and O’Connor traveled the world together. Video of one of the events, in which the three appeared to cower when asked questions, went viral with the remark: “obsessed with the fact that these three introverts need to go on a world press tour together.”

Faist is amused by the memory. “That’s really funny,” says the American actor while laughing – and then doesn’t make many other comments throughout the interview.

In the film, he is the only one who plays a more similar character. The other two have a pair of great extroverts on their hands.

For O’Connor, playing someone similar can be as difficult as playing a completely different role for the actor.

“It’s very impressive when you see an actor like Z in this film, or Mike in this film, if you know them in particular, and they’re playing something where they have very little in common with themselves,” says the Brit.

“But there’s also so much value in actors playing something more like themselves. Because it’s so hard. You have to be very sincere, very vulnerable. The decisions you make are details.”