While the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic put a temporary pause on most of the film industry, stars and fans alike were awed by Zendaya and John David Washington’s successful production of the upcoming film Malcolm and Marie. Directed by Sam Levinson, the two-person cast and minimal set allowed for the film to be safely and quickly shot during this past summer. With Euphoria’s production on temporary pause, Levinson and Zendaya teamed up to shoot the film. According to Deadline, Levinson assured safety was the film’s top priority, and his wife, Ashley Levinson, “worked with doctors, lawyers, WGA, DGA, and SAG to meet the requirements necessary to go into production.” In addition, Deadline also reported that “the production employed a lean crew who wore multiple hats with everyone looking out for each other, i.e., co-EP Kreiss became the default for everything from tracking scripts, stocking craft services and standing in for lighting.”
Now, almost 6 months later, the first trailer of the film dropped last Friday, allowing the world to finally catch a glimpse of the actress’s secret project. While reactions to the trailer were overall positive, some voiced their criticism of the actress’s efforts to make a film during the height of Covid-19. In response, Zendaya recently spoke out on the matter in the podcast OTHERtone, stating:
“It’s basically kind of birthed within quarantine conversations Sam [Levinson] and I had in wanting to create something safely…I really wanted to be creative and I hadn’t worked in a long time, through that year anyway. The last thing I acted on was Euphoria, and I had a year of not really doing any acting. I really missed what I loved.”
A project of passion, the actress went on to discuss how the development of the project came to be and even commented on her own aspirations to direct and write more in the future. Currently, Zendaya is back to acting in the upcoming Spiderman movie, shooting in Atlanta, but we can expect big things from her moving forward. With Malcolm and Marie already generating quite a bit of Oscar buzz, the Euphoria star maybe adding ‘Oscar winner’ to her long list of accomplishments soon enough. Set to be released on February 5th of this year, Malcolm and Marie is a film we’d be hard-pressed to miss.
