Zendaya Talks About Taking On More Mature Roles, Wishing She’d Gone To High School & “Going Through My Angsty Teenager Phase Now”

deadline.com:

In an interview accompanying this month’s Vogue cover story, Zendaya holds forth on her ambitions, growing up in the spotlight and playing the relatable everygirl despite never having gone to high school.

The contrasts between her initial Disney TV on-screen persona, her reality growing up and the more adult roles she is now taking on are not lost on the actress. “I’m always in a high school somewhere,” the now 27-year-old actress told Vogue about earlier roles. “And, mind you, I never went to high school.” She called the move to more mature parts — like her upcoming tennis pro love triangle movie Challengers, which has a steamy second trailer — refreshing.

She added that making the jump to that kind of was “kind of scary, because I was like, ‘I hope people buy me as my own age, or maybe a little bit older,’ because I have friends that have kids, or are having kids.” The transition is important to her, and nerve-wracking. “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,” observed Zendaya, “and I can’t enjoy all the things that are happening to me, because I’m like this” she says balling up her fists tightly. “I’m very tense, and I think that I carry that from being a kid and never really having an opportunity to just try sh*t.

And I wish I went to school.” Zendaya did, however, graduate from high school, and a public one at that. After moving to L.A.