Zendaya wants to play a “bad guy.”
The 26-year-old actress would love to play an ill-intentioned person, but not specifically a villain in a superhero flick to counter always portraying the “good guy.”
Speaking to ELLE magazine before the SAG-AFTRA strike, she said: “I would love to play a villain of sorts. Tap into the evil, supervillain vibes. Whatever that manifests in, I don’t think necessarily in a superhero sense, I just mean in like an emotional sense. I feel like I usually play the good guy, so I’d like to play the bad guy.”
If the Dune star wasn’t working in the movie business, she’d be a teacher like her mum and dad. However, she also aspires to step behind the camera.
“I think within the industry, I would be a director, which is something I hope to do one day. And I think outside, I feel like I would have probably followed in the footsteps of my parents and become a teacher. I love kids, I love learning and I love teaching,” she said.
Zendaya has starred in hit movies such as Spider-Man: No Way Home and The Greatest Showman, but she insists that she is not following a strict career plan despite becoming one of the most sought-after stars in Hollywood.
She previously told British Vogue: “I never really thought, ‘I have to do this by this time and I want to do this by that time.’ I just want to do the things that make me happy and bring me joy and fulfil me as an artist, as a person. So, I keep that loose, because if one day it turns into a completely different career path, then I would allow myself to do that.
The idea of trying to direct in the future excites me. That’s why I’m on set so much. When I’m not in it, I’m right there trying to learn. I go around and I ask our crew members, ‘What are you doing today? Can you explain it to me?’ Because we’ve got some real vets in the game. So, the hope is that I’ll be able to, one day, make the things that I want to see.”
