Zendaya is opening up about her life as a child actor and the regrets she has as a result.
When it comes to successful child actors, Zendaya is at the top of the list. Getting her start on the Disney Channel, in an interview with Vogue, Zendaya revealed she began her family’s breadwinner very quickly.
“I felt like I was thrust into a very adult position: I was becoming the breadwinner of my family very early, and there was a lot of role- reversal happening, and just kind of becoming grown, really,” she told Vogue while being interviewed by Serena Williams.
As a result, Zendaya felt the need to be “this perfect being, and be everything that everyone needs me to be, and live up to all these expectations.” She admits she never had the chance to make mistakes.
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“Now, when I have these moments in my career — like, my first time leading a film that’s actually going to be in a theater — I feel like I shrink, and I can’t enjoy all the things that are happening to me. I’m very tense, and I think that I carry that from being a kid and never really having an opportunity to just try [stuff].”
Another regret of Zendaya’s, “I wish I went to school.” She continued, telling Vogue, “I’m always in a high school somewhere. And, mind you, I never went to high school.”
But as Zendaya admits, “I have complicated feelings about kids and fame and being in the public eye, or being a child actor. … I don’t know how much of a choice I had,” she said in terms of the goals she had growing up.
The 27-year-old actress says her upbringing certainly had an effect on her life as an adult revealing she’s “almost going through my angsty teenager phase now, because I didn’t really have the time to do it before.”
Now, Zendaya is hoping to find that balance between work life and her personal life. That’s when she flips the script on Williams, asking her how she does it all.
“Ask someone else,” Williams jokes before admitting it’s about having people around you you can trust and can help you “lighten the load.” A concept that feels foreign to Zendaya.
“I’m like, ‘I just have to do it myself,’” Zendaya responded, but admits she can understand that the only way to have it all.