Zendaya has insisted “Euphoria” isn’t a “moral tale.”
The 25-year-old actress has spoken out to defend her show after anti-drug education group D.A.R.E. slammed the program for “glorifying” substance abuse and “misguidedly and erroneously” depicting high school drug use.
Zendaya insisted the show has set out to reassure viewers they are not “alone” in their struggles, but it’s never encouraged the audience to live their lives in a particular way.
She told Entertainment Weekly: “Our show is in no way a moral tale to teach people how to live their life or what they should be doing. If anything, the feeling behind ‘Euphoria,’ or whatever we have always been trying to do with it, is to hopefully help people feel a little bit less alone in their experience and their pain.
“And maybe feel like they’re not the only one going through or dealing with what they’re dealing with.”
Season two of the HBO series culminates in an intervention for Zendaya’s character Rue, which the actress called the “light at the end of the tunnel” and she hopes her alter ego’s experiences allow viewers to gain “a little bit more understanding and [be] empathetic over the experience of addiction.”
She added: “My biggest hope is that people are able to connect to it and those who need to heal and grow with Rue hopefully, by the end of this season, feel that hope and feel that change in her.”
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