While chatting with Pose star MJ Rodriguez for Variety‘s Actors on Actors series, Zendaya revealed what it was like to reimagine a new Mary Jane for the Marvel Cinematic Universe and how filming the hit Spider-Man movies is very different than acting on HBO’s Euphoria.
When asked by Rodriguez what it was like being cast as “MJ”, a character who’s been traditionally been shown as a redhead with green eyes, Zendaya said she actually fun with the role and that she liked how it still honored Mary Jane’s comic book origins while still moving her in a unique direction for the MCU.
“‘Spider-Man’ was one of the first movies that I did outside of Disney Channel. And yeah, I didn’t have much to do in the first movie, but I was so just excited to be doing the movie at all. And I was lucky because they already kind of wanted to recreate the character and turn her into a new version of what I think maybe the original Mary Jane character represented, and just do it in our own way in this Marvel Cinematic Universe. I kind of came into it and there was already on the page a smart, quick, sharp young girl who comes off a bit quirky or offbeat. I have a lot of fun doing it. I like being able to do comedy and things that aren’t so heavy.”
The actress is of course referring to Euphoria, which is obviously more darker fare than the Spider-Man movies. But the HBO series also has its advantages, like not having to guard billion-dollar franchise secrets.
“It’s very different from ‘Euphoria,’ where it’s close and you have more time,” Zendaya said. “Whereas on something like ‘Spider-Man,’ it’s such a huge thing. And there’s so many secrets, and half of the script you can’t even read because there’s too many spoilers for, at the time, ‘Endgame’ and all these other things.”
As for when Euphoria will return, the second season was set to film in the middle of March, which obviously didn’t happen. But according to Zendaya, the scripts are written and production will resume eventually, so it joins the long list of TV series that are coming back, just not anytime soon.
(Via Variety)