Zendaya covers the September issue of InStyle. For the cover shoot, she exclusively wore all Black-designers like Alietté, Hanifa and Christopher John Rogers. She also had an all-Black glam team around her for the shoot, including a Black hair stylist and Black makeup stylists. Like so many magazine interviews this summer, Zendaya’s InStyle cover interview was done remotely, via Zoom. She was interviewed by BLM activist and author Patrisse Cullors, and it sounds like Zendaya has handled lockdown well. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:
How she’s doing: I genuinely don’t know how I’m doing. It’s been an interesting few months, to say the least. But I’ve been trying to remain not just positive but grateful. I’m grateful for my health and for the fact that I can quarantine safely. I know that I’ll be OK financially once this is over, but for a lot of people that isn’t the case. So anytime I start complaining, I just stop. It’s been tough to stay creative and motivated [during this time] because there are so many things that can take you down emotionally. And then, of course, everything that has happened [following the death of George Floyd] has been devastating. I didn’t know what I could do to help… Because at the end of the day, I’m just an actress, you know? And I don’t pretend to be anything other than that. If I don’t know something, then I ask people who are actually on the front lines doing the work. I’m up in the bleachers, not on the field.
She’s promoting Dune: “Dune was incredible. I wasn’t in it very much, so when I was watching the trailer, I was like, “Oh my gosh!” I called Timothée [Chalamet, who stars in it] and said, “Dude! You should be proud.” It is a big deal to even be a small part of something with such a massive cast. And I love sci-fi stuff too. It’s fun to escape into another world.
Working with an all-Black team on the shoot: “I’ve always had a Black stylist and Black hair and makeup artists. But we were able to work with two talented young Black photographers on this shoot too. We’re actually around the same age, so it was cool to be with my peers and have an opportunity to show what we can do. There are also so many Black designers people don’t know about, so having an opportunity where they can be in InStyle and get the love they deserve is really special. I hope people are like, “Oh, I like that dress!” And then go support them.
Whether she considers herself an activist: “I have always hesitated to use the word “activist” for myself. That is a lifestyle. That is a choice every day to be doing the work and devoting your life to a cause. And I don’t feel I am deserving of the title. There are a lot of words that better describe what I do. I’m an actress, but I’m also just a person who has a heart and wants to do the right thing. I care about human beings, so this time is very hard to talk about. It’s painful. I remember when I was with my dad in Atlanta shooting the first Spider-Man movie, and it was around the time that the murders of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling happened. I was extremely emotional, and I remember thinking about my dad, who was out picking up food at the time. And I started worrying and calling him like, “Are you OK?” I didn’t want him to go out and do anything. But my dad is a 65-year-old Black man. He’s been on this planet a long time, so he knows what he knows. But I still had that fear, and that scared me.
I’m kind of worried about Dune! I’ve never read the books but I did read a synopsis and… yeah, I was like WTF. But I love that she and Timothee Chalamet are friends, that’s very cute. As for everything else… I really wish we, as a society, didn’t expect every Black person or every Black artist to be activists or have opinions about BLM which they *have* to voice in interviews. As Zendaya talks about in the “shooting in Atlanta” section, this is her lived experience, this is her life, this is the daily trauma for her. She cares, because of course she cares and of course she deals with it as best she can. But I just wish there was less of an expectation for a homogenized “reaction” from every Black celebrity. Some people want to talk about it, some don’t and either is fine.
Photos courtesy of InStyle.
