Zendaya said in a recent interview on “Jake’s Takes” while promoting her new tennis drama “Challengers” that “it’s very odd” to always be asked about what it’s like kissing her male co-stars on screen. The actor has noticed in recent years that she gets asked in interviews about kissing scenes far more than her co-stars get asked.
“I feel like, when you do [kissing scenes], there is an abnormal amount of attention paid to it,” interviewer Jake Hamilton asked Zendaya, to which she replied: “I know, it’s very odd.”
“Do you feel like, as a society, people have forgotten that an actor kissing another actor is literally a part of your job? Or are they using it as an excuse to get you to talk about kissing?” Hamilton asked.
“I have no idea. I don’t know if it’s because they want it to be, like, a viral thing, I don’t know. But I have noticed that, with me specifically,” Zendaya answered. “I feel like other actors don’t… if it was somebody else here, you probably wouldn’t [have] asked that question. But yeah, it is a part of my job and it is a completely normal part of the job despite, I think, maybe other people’s perception of our job. But yeah, it is odd.”
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“Thank you for bringing that up, because I thought the same thing,” Zendaya added. “I’m like, this is weird! This is weird!”
Zendaya has been on a press tour for much of the year thanks to back-to-back releases “Dune: Part Two” and “Challengers.” The latter film, directed by “Call Me by Your Name” helmer Luca Guadagnino, casts Zendaya as a tennis phenom whose career is cut short. A bulk of the film takes place when Zendaya’s character is a mother in her early 30s. She recently told Vogue magazine that it was nice to have the chance to play a more mature character than the high school students she’s most widely associated with.
“I’m always in a high school somewhere,” Zendaya said. “And, mind you, I never went to high school.”
The actor said breaking away from high school roles in “Challengers” was “refreshing. And it was also kind of scary, because I was like, ‘I hope people buy me as my own age, or maybe a little bit older, because I have friends that have kids, or are having kids.’”
“Challengers” opens in theaters April 26. Watch Zendaya’s full interview on “Jake’s Takes” in the video below.