Zendaya & Tom Holland Discuss the Stereotypes for Tall Women
Zendaya and Tom Holland pose for a photo while attending a SiriusXM Town Hall panel on Friday morning (December 10) in New York City.
The Spider-Man co-stars and real-life couple were joined by their co-star Jacob Batalon to chat with host Jessica Shaw about No Way Home. Earlier in the day, they were photographed arriving at Good Morning America for an early morning interview.
During the panel, Tom and Zendaya discussed the problematic stereotypes for tall women.
Click inside to read the full transcript of the conversation…
Keep reading to see the full transcript of the conversation…
Jessica Shaw: Zendaya. I wanted to ask. And actually, and Tom, I wanted to ask you guys because in the first, in, in Far from Home when MJ and Peter kiss and Zendaya, you’re taller than Tom and it became this, this thing. And I thought….
Tom Holland: Not that much taller. Let’s just, let’s put this out there. Maybe like an inch or two at best. It’s not like, people say like, like ‘how did you guys kiss? It must have been so difficult.’
Jessica Shaw: That’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is I’m always fascinated by, because it’s such a misogynistic thing that like, ‘oh my God, the woman,’ and it’s, it, it is oh, problematic. And I’m always interested by a moment where people are like, ‘oh,’ and, and it’s often something that comes from pop culture. Where people are like, ‘Oh, this is something that is problematic that we have this assumption.’ Why do we have this assumption? And it was, I, I don’t know. I was wondering if that was something that you guys heard about or if the, or, um, just kind of like, thank you because this is so screwed up.
Zendaya: Yeah, this is normal too.
Tom Holland: Yeah it’s a stupid assumption that…
Zendaya: My mom is taller than my dad. My mom is taller than everyone.
Jacob Batalon: Right. It’s like not a weird thing for women to be tall.
Tom Holland: No, not at all. It’s ridiculous. Yeah. And I, you know, I remember when we were doing the Spider Man screen tests, I mean, you’d have to ask Jon Watts this question, but every girl that we tested for both roles was taller than me. And I wonder whether Jon, that was a decision that Jon had made. There was, there was no one that tested that was shorter than I was. To be fair, I am quite short. But, uh, but yeah, so maybe that was a decision Jon Watts made and something he was aware of and wanted to break the stereotype. I think it’s great.
Zendaya: It’s a nice, and it’s a nice sweet moment between them.
Tom Holland: It is very sweet. Yeah.
Zendaya: You know, and I, I hate the like having or, or like often, like having to cheat it and pretend like why not just let it be what it is.
Tom Holland: Put me on an apple box.
Jessica Shaw: It’s right. It’s so ridiculous. And it’s so offensive. And you think about, well, seriously, when you think about there’s like, we have people watching today who are super young when we saw them. And I just feel like it’s important. It’s like all of those tiny things are important.
Jacob Batalon: Don’t let society tell you what you can’t be.
Tom Holland: Absolutely. Thank you for bringing that up.
Zendaya: I honestly never thought of it as a thing. Because my parents were always that way. So I, I didn’t know that people cared until life, you know, but before that I had, no, I have no construct of it.