Zendaya found competing on ‘Dancing with the Stars‘ “very stressful.”
The 28-year-old actress came second on the show with professional partner Val Chmerkovskiy in 2013, but she admitted she has never watched the program since, in part because she doesn’t think she is the target audience, but also she doesn’t want to be reminded of her stint in the dance competition.
“I have not watched ‘Dancing With the Stars’ since I was on,” she said on EW’s ‘The Awardist’ podcast. “I didn’t really watch ‘Dancing With the Stars’ before I was on ‘Dancing With the Stars.’ I don’t think I was the target demographic. My grandma loves ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ that’s her bag. But yeah, I also think it was a very stressful experience. I was like, ‘I don’t think I’m gonna be watching this anymore.'”
The Challengers actress recently admitted she is “terrified” of fame and doesn’t believe she is “cut out” for it.
Appearing alongside her Dune: Part Two co-stars Timothée Chalamet, also 28, and Austin Butler, 33, and director Denis Villeneuve, 56, at a screening of the sci-fi epic in New York, they were asked by an audience member about the Messianic cult in the film and whether it has any correlation to celebrity fandoms.
“I feel like, often, I am not cut out for that part of it,” Zendaya responded. “I do love my job, I’m so grateful. I love doing the work, I love being on set, I do love moments like this — don’t get me wrong — but I am terrified of that part of it, often.”
The Greatest Showman star – who is dating her Spider-Man co-star Tom Holland, 28 – finds it “hard to handle” being in the spotlight and wants to be seen as “a person” first and foremost.
“So I don’t know if I, either, can fully relate, but I definitely understand what you’re saying, and I think that’s what’s terrifying to me,” she went on. “I would like to be a person and for people to see me as that first. I don’t necessarily know if I want or can handle all of that or want [that] — some people that’s part of it, they enjoy the power that comes from it, and I don’t know if that’s for me.”
