Zendaya reveals what co-producing Malcolm & Marie taught her

Zendaya has said helping to produce Malcolm & Marie has given her the confidence to carve out space for other black creatives in the film industry.

The 24-year-old US singer and actress stars opposite John David Washington, 36, in the black-and-white domestic drama from Netflix.

The pair play the title characters, a director and his girlfriend, whose relationship is tested on the night of his latest film’s premiere, and both also worked as producers on the feature.

It was amongst the first Hollywood features to be written, financed and produced during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Zendaya said she was excited to explore producing more.

She said: “From this I have been able to get the confidence to, if the roles aren’t there, if the things I see or the roles I want to grow into aren’t available to me, sometimes you have to make them.

“So hopefully I will not only do that for myself but hopefully for other people as I grow into this producing aspect of who I am.

“Specifically black creatives.

“I am excited to continue to work.

“It just happened at the right time.”

The star, who made history in September becoming the youngest actress to win the outstanding drama lead award at the Emmys for Euphoria, said the project felt like “falling in love”.

She said: “I didn’t know when we would be able to do it safely.

“Thankfully we were.

“But I knew that it would be the next project that we did because it is something like I call it falling in love.

“When the right project comes around, it is a feeling you can’t really explain.

“You just feel compelled to tell the story.

“When John David came on board and said yes, that just solidified that this was magical.”

Malcolm & Marie is available on Netflix from Friday.