After winning her first Emmy Award for her leading role in the phenomenon series, Zendaya is back for season two of Euphoria, premiering on January 9 only on OSN and the OSN streaming app in the Middle East.
The show is equally mesmerizing and heart-wrenching, unveiling the ugliest truths of the lives of young people in America–their struggles with mental health, addition, and exploitation with often unbearable realism, all shot with a signature stylistic flair that has made the show instantly iconic for Gen Z and beyond.
Ahead of the premiere, Esquire Middle East sat down with Zendaya, who also stars in the historically popular Spider-Man: No Way Home in cinemas now, to talk about the return of the series that she also executive produces.
Read our full conversation below:
Great to see you again Zendaya.
You too!
I think Rue, in a lot of ways, is a Tony Soprano-esque character in an era in which we don’t have those characters anymore.
Right.
What do you think we’ve lost in an era when audiences want all characters to be a reflection of the values that they hold, rather than a reflection of the world that exists around us?
For me, what has always been important with the show is the concept of empathy, the concept of a greater human understanding. I think Rue makes decisions and does things that are painful, not only to herself, but to other people. And we see that fallout over and over and over again.
I think in this show, and this season more specifically, she goes to the rock bottom. It’s my hope for people watching that they still see her as a person worthy of their love. And worth of their time, and that she has a redemptive quality still, and that we still see the good in her even if she can’t see it in herself.
I think that if people can go with her through that, and get to the end, and still have hope for her future, and watch her make the changes and steps to heal and humanize her through her sobriety journey and her addiction, then maybe they can extend that to people that in real life. If you can love her, then you can love someone that is struggling with the same thing, and maybe have a greater understanding for the pain they’re facing. That is often out of their control. So for me, that is the most important thing.
I care about her deeply. I also care about the people who care about her, because I think many of them share her story of addiction and sobriety, and many of them share a lot of her emotional disorders, and I think it’s important that we continue to have that love for her.
I don’t know, that was a long-winded way of just saying that I think it’s important that we have characters that are flawed. And remember that we are not the worst mistake we’ve ever made. And that redemption is possible.
The stand-alone episode set in the diner with Ali captured that beautifully.
Yeah, I think one of my favorite lines from the diner episode was when Ali is talking about the concept of redemption. He’s like, if you think that you’re already a bad person, you’re just going to keep doing bad things, because what’s the point? Then you have a whole bunch of people running around who don’t give a f— about redemption. I think that Rue just needs to find the good in herself.
And remember that she is still worthy of beautiful things and love and happiness. Just because she has made mistakes does not mean that she can’t or doesn’t deserve a beautiful life. That’s easier for me to say about her than for her to say about herself. But that’s my hope for her. And hopefully, I don’t want to give away the season but hopefully we get to that point with her.
How difficult is it to put yourself through this, from an acting perspective?
I mean, it’s incredibly difficult. This is very difficult show to do, and can be quite painful. Your body doesn’t know that any of it is not real, even if your mind does. And honestly, if you really care about the characters, which I know we all do, you can internalize the things that they go through. You just want them to make the right decision, and you want them to be okay.
That’s a painful battle that happens inside of you, where you have to do something that you just wish they wouldn’t do or say, or something you would never say in real life, which is difficult, especially when it’s in scenes with people that you really care about. You’re like, I’m so sorry that I’m doing this, because I don’t mean any of this, this is not me, this is a character, please forgive me after this. This is something I’ve definitely had to deal with.
I think what’s really special is the fact that we’re in a really safe environment. That’ from top down, whether it be Sam [Levinson, Creator], Marcell [Rev, Cinematographer], our Ads, our crew, and then each other, I always felt very safe and protected to do my best work. I knew that I was in good hands. And I knew that I could go to the places I needed to go to because I had the support, I had people there that have my back. And that’s really the only way that you can operate with something like that.
When the project first came to you, did you hesitate in taking on this material, knowing all that it would come with?
I think the choice to do this show wasn’t really a choice. I just felt like I had to do it. I felt very connected and emotionally invested in Rue, and the characters. When I met Sam, I immediately was drawn to the story that he was telling and how honest it was because I think Rue is a version of himself, and his experience with addiction. I thought it was a beautiful story. it wasn’t a decision of like, oh, is this the right thing to do? Or, is somebody going to think this way of me?
All those preconceived notions about what I was supposed to do just kind of went out the window, because I was really just focused on what emotionally felt like the right decision and the right move. I felt like if I was going to do something as beautiful as this, I there was no better home than HBO to do that.
You’ve also continued to grow as an artist year after year, bringing along a fanbase that is growing with you. How much did you consider that existing fanbase when you jumped into this material?
It’s interesting. I’m very grateful for the people who have followed with me through my career and grown up with me and grown beside me, because I think we’re all pretty much the same age now. We kind of grew up from when I was a kid to now, and that’s been really special. There’s a lot of people who I think connected to Euphoria, regardless of age, just based strictly based on the fact that they connected to Rue in a meaningful way, or any of the characters really.
For a lot of people, Rue was a version of themselves, whether it be their sobriety journey, or their mental health journey, whatever the case may be, and I think so many people connected to that, and I became the catalyst to connecting those two people, I just got to be the storyteller in the middle. And it felt great, but I’ve continued to feel very grateful for that responsibility to feel connected these people that feel connected to her, because I know I am, too.
I have found that I’ve been able to meet people in all different walks of life in all different age groups, some people that aren’t Gen Z, but still find something in one of these characters that feels like home, that feels honest to who they are, or puts words to an experience that they can’t quite describe or weren’t able to articulate. I think that is a beautiful thing about Euphoria. I’m very grateful for that.
How does that journey continue in season 2, thematically speaking?
I think that’s one of the biggest themes of the season. Other than redemption, I think it’s also hope. I remember halfway through the season, that’s when the rock bottom hits. And that’s where it became extremely painful. I think for all of us, just to watch it happen and to watch Rue go through this will be hard, and to portray her going through it hurt me. I remember having a conversation midway through with Sam. I was like, she can’t stay here. We can’t leave her here.
I always felt that Rue would be okay, because if Rue was a version of Sam, and Sam is who he is, and he was able to take all that pain and turn it into this beautiful television show many years later and was able to do something with it, then I feel that Rue was going to be okay. But I wanted to see that on screen.
I think we all wanted to see that happen in real and like on the screen, we wanted to actually see a sense of hope throughout the show, because it goes to such an extreme low for her. I think that’s a massive, massive theme in this show. Like I said, other than redemption, and that we are not the worst mistakes we ever made, but also the concept of hope, that there is something beautiful at the end and that we deserve happy endings.
We deserve the good things in our life, no matter the mistakes we’ve made, and I think the main theme in my eyes is that and hopefully people will feel that once we get through the tough part. It’s a long journey but when we get there, I promise to keep loving her and keep supporting her.
Euphoria season 2 is streaming only on OSN and the OSN Streaming App starting January 9