It’s fair to say that Zendaya is currently one of the biggest stars on the planet, with the former child star becoming established for both her acting career and fashion prowess in recent years.
While she got her big break on the Disney Channel series Shake It Up back in 2010, she didn’t really reach the icon status that she currently enjoys until more than a decade later.
Ultimately, 2021 was a pretty pivotal year for Zendaya, who appeared in both Dune and Spider-Man: No Way Home in just a three-month period.
This was also the year she and her boyfriend, Tom Holland, went public with their relationship, quickly becoming one of Hollywood’s most beloved power couples.
Zendaya’s celebrity status continued to rise in 2022, when the second season of her TV series Euphoria premiered, and Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
At the same time, interest in her and Tom’s relationship was reaching fever pitch since it was still relatively new public knowledge, and any time they were spotted out together, the internet would promptly go into meltdown.
This included their viral visit to the Louvre in Paris in September of that year — the same month that Zendaya picked up her second Emmy award for Euphoria and became the youngest two-time acting winner.
In between all of this, Zendaya filmed the movie Challengers, which was originally due for release in August 2023 but was postponed to April 26 due to last year’s SAG-AFTRA strike.
Filming for the upcoming movie began on May 3, 2022, and wrapped at the end of June, and in a new interview, Zendaya has revealed that her increased star power during this period meant that she had to sacrifice bonding time with her costars Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor.
Speaking to New Zealand magazine Coup de Main, Zendaya admitted that the attention she faced was so intense that she opted out of social activities with the rest of the cast and crew so that the fanfare surrounding her didn’t ruin everybody’s experience.
In a junket for the movie alongside Mike and Josh, Zendaya said of her star status: “Grocery shopping for me has gotten difficult.”
“My life was starting to change a little bit more while we were shooting,” she continued. “And I remember everybody was going out, and I was like: ‘You know what, I’m not gonna join you because I think it might make your night not so fun, you know?’”
“We would have enjoyed having you regardless,” Mike insisted in response before adding: “We were always like-” At this point, Zendaya interrupted: “‘You’re welcome to come!’”
And viewers couldn’t help but feel for Zendaya, with one fan sharing the interview clip to X, formerly known as Twitter, and writing: “god this made me sad fr omg.”
The tweet quickly gained over a thousand likes as others echoed the sentiment. One person replied: "omg, this is so sad.”
Interestingly, the interview comes just one week after Zendaya admitted that she isn’t sure if she wants to be a “public-facing person forever,” adding to Vogue magazine: “I don't necessarily want my kids to have to deal with this.”
