Sincerely, Saskia

You don’t get to be the only Black woman to win two Emmy’s in the same category without delivering some stand out performances. And with an epic generational run coming up with films like Dune: Part Three, The Odyssey, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and Shrek 5, we’re about to see a whole lot more of her – which is only ever a good thing.

More than worth her salt, the name she’s made for herself in the industry is well-deserved. Although, there is a massive but…

When I look at Zendaya’s filmography and the promise a film makes by having her on the cast list, none quite deliver the Zendaya we crave from Euphoria. Not because Euphoria is the greatest show in the world, but it’s the only thing she’s done that allows her to generate performances that we can’t stop talking about.

Let’s talk about The Drama for a second… A24’s latest offering by Kristoffer Borgli.

The Drama follows Emma and Charlie, a soon-to-bed-wed couple whose relationship gets thrown into disarray after Emma reveals a disturbing secret about her past. Don’t worry, no spoilers.

It doesn’t take long to reveal the thing we’re all waiting for, with the rest of the film hinging on Robert Pattinson’s Charlie navigating how this has now made him question everything about the woman he fell in love with on site.

Zendaya is first on the bill, but it felt like it was very much Pattinson’s film. Now, this is down to a few things, but the main one being is after the secret is revealed fairly early on, the rest of the film follows Charlie’s POV. We watch him go through what was reminiscent of the seven stages of grief, mourning the person he knew before he found out about her past.

Because of this, we see more range from Pattinson, simply because he has more to react to. There were only two main emotions from Zendaya’s character Emma: happy-in-love and anxious-despair. And that’s not because she doesn’t have range, but it’s because there wasn’t much more to expect from the character because of how she was written.

That being said, albeit in a slightly smaller window of acting, Zendaya gives a performance that, like most of her performances, keeps directors wanting to cast her. However, I was hoping that this would be the film that Zendaya gets to unequivocally own – not overshadowed by the storyline or scene partner. But it seems that role is still to come. Why wasn’t this it? Zendaya is the actress of a generation, so why are directors not using her?

We got close with Malcolm & Marie, which was a 50/50 split of an acting showcase by Zendaya and John David Washington and a really good watch. However, outside of Euphoria – which is her show without question – we aren’t left with much else that gives us the Zendaya we crave to see on screen.

Zendaya has been in big name films like The Greatest Showman, Spider-Man, Dune… but these aren’t her films. They gave us just enough to keep us wanting to see more of what she can do, but they aren’t her stories so she can’t deliver the kind of scene stealing performances we know she’s capable of.

Then we go to Challengers, a good film that gives us more insight into how well she plays complex, slightly unlikeable characters, but then it brings us the issue of chemistry.

Zendaya is charismatic and simply can’t help but have chemistry with everyone. Josh O’Connor, Mike Faist and Zendaya’s press tour was almost as interesting to watch as the film. Her and Pattinson even have reporters asking silly questions like, ‘are your partners jealous’ because they fit together like they’ve been starring in films together forever. Even as brief as her and Zac Efron’s romance was in the overarching story of The Greatest Showman, their dynamic was one of the best things about the film.

But, and there is another but…  just because you have chemistry with everyone, doesn’t mean you have to have chemistry with everyone. As I left The Drama, feeling refreshed from watching something that was engaging and pretty well done, I couldn’t help but think how good it would be to see Zendaya in a film where the director can’t rely on the chemistry she has with her co-star, where she doesn’t play the perfect, if not slightly deranged girlfriend, and where the storyline doesn’t limit her expression.

A female-led film like Columbiana, Tomb Raider, Cake, Wild, The Substance, Erin Brokovich, Girl, Interrupted; any film where the female lead goes on a journey, has a vendetta to fulfil or where the love interest is an afterthought and not the main fixture.

Zendaya has shown us who she is and that she doesn’t come to play; seemingly giving her all to the jobs she signs on to. Outside of Euphoria or Malcolm & Marie though, for the amount directors use her name to sell a film, we should have more examples of roles she’s done that we can point to and say, that’s Zendaya.

It’s like directors position her as a token cast member – not token Black actress but token talent. Since The Greatest Showman, there’s not much she’s done wrong; critically or fan-rated. Zendaya draws a crowd; she has a very strong fanbase and people know when she’s in a film she’s going to deliver, so why can’t directors give her the space to deliver more?

She currently has five upcoming projects, and they are all big names. However, aside from Euphoria season five – which I don’t have much hope for – from what I can see we’re going to get more of the same Zendaya tease. Enough to keep you entertained and happy to see her thriving, but not enough to show us a deeper, more captivating performance. I hope I’m wrong. I also hope that from being in these big-name films, everything that she adds her name to after gives her the space to command the screen instead of decorating it.