“Euphoria” is not for the faint of heart. From its very first episode, the HBO series zeroed in on teenage self-destruction, then turned up the volume to full blast. Take it from Zendaya, whose character, Rue Bennett, is plagued by drug addiction. The actor, who won an Emmy Award for her performance in 2020, is honest about the fact that bringing such a troubled character to life is “fucking brutal.”
“There are days when you’re just in it,” she told The Cut of playing a teenager who is always one bad decision away from a breakdown. “Even if your brain knows it’s not real, your body takes on this anxiousness and anger.”
Zendaya spoke specifically to filming the fifth episode of Season 2, which stays with Rue for nearly the entire hourlong run time. She jumps out of her mother’s car, runs through oncoming traffic, and get chased by police, only to end up trapped in the house of a drug dealer who is looking to sell her into human trafficking.
The challenge, Zendaya said, was to portray such volatility in a way that still invites viewers to empathize with the character. “How far can she go while we still love her, still root for her, and still see her as a human who deserves our love?” she posited.
Though Rue would appear to be the most emotionally demanding character on Zendaya’s résumé, playing the role comes naturally to the actor. “She lives in me in a weird way,” she said. “I don’t have to go searching for her.”
For Zendaya, this is unique. In fact, she says she’s never felt this way playing any other character. “Even with the ‘Spider-Man’ movies, I’ll talk to the director and ask, ‘Is that MJ-y enough?’ I try to find it again,” she said. “With Rue, she’s just there.”
As to what’s in store for television’s most unpredictable minor on the Feb. 27 season finale, Zendaya says viewers may finally start to see Rue turn things around. “Halfway through [filming, ‘Euphoria’ creator Sam Levinson and I] were like, ‘We can’t just leave Rue here; we gotta put some fucking hope in this show.’ We’ll get that sense of redemption,” she said.“I think Rue deserves it, and I think anyone who suffers from the same thing she does deserves it.”
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