Zendaya did all her own stunts on new movie The Greatest Showman.
The Hugh Jackman led-movie marks 20-year-old Zendaya’s second big screen outing, after this summer’s (17) Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Although recogniZable to audiences through her Disney Channel TV show Shake It Up! and numerous red carpet appearances, Zendaya is now preparing to unleash a full-scale Hollywood career, and is already wowing her colleagues on film sets.
“She blew me away,” director Michael Gracey told American Vogue. “I would shout out a direction or give the slightest adjustment, and while flying through the air, she’d do it.”
“While I was wincing in pain and covering myself in Tiger Balm and KT tape, Zendaya would move to her next scene completely unfazed,” added co-star Zac Efron with a laugh.
Zendaya’s Vogue cover story is the star’s first, and she stuns in a photo shoot by Mario Testino for the July issue.
Talking to the fashion glossy about another of her Disney Channel shows, K.C. Undercover, Zendaya reveals she made it clear to TV execs that she wanted lead character K.C. Cooper to be a strong female role model.
“I wanted to make sure that she wasn’t good at singing or acting or dancing. That she wasn’t artistically inclined,” she recalled. “I didn’t want them to all of a sudden be like, ‘Oh, yeah, and then she sings this episode!’ No. She can’t dance; she can’t sing. She can’t do that stuff. There are other things that a girl can be.
“I want her to be martial arts–trained. I want her to be able to do everything that a guy can do. I want her to be just as smart as everybody else. I want her to be a brainiac. I want her to be able to think on her feet. But I also want her to be socially awkward, not a cool kid. I want her to be normal with an extraordinary life.”
