Zendaya and John David Washington are doing press for their new Netflix film, Malcolm & Marie. The film was written and produced entirely during the pandemic. It was written by Euphoria creator Sam Levinson, who is close to Zendaya, and the script stemmed from Sam and Zendaya’s daily conversations in lockdown. They wanted to find some small project to do together with a very small cast and crew in a production “bubble.” Malcolm & Marie is basically a two-person play, filmed entirely in a massive LA home. Zendaya and John David play lovers who have returned home after a Hollywood awards show, and fights and conversation ensue. Here’s the trailer:
Because I’ve never seen Zendaya in her Disney Channel work, I look at her and see her as a young woman, not a kid. She looks and seems young here, of course, because she IS young: she’s 24 years old. But she’s best known for playing 16-year-olds, so some people have been disconcerted seeing her play an adult woman in a relationship with a 30-something man. John David was asked about the age difference – he’s 36, 12 years older than Zendaya – a few weeks ago:
In a recent interview with Variety, the 36-year-old actor and son of Denzel Washington said of Zendaya, 24, “People are going to see in this film how much of a woman she is. She has far more experience than I do in the industry. I’ve only been in it for seven years. She’s been in it longer, so I’m learning from her. I’m the rookie.”
Washington continued on to say that he had been “leaning on” Zendaya — who had her breakout role in 2010 as Rocky Blue on Disney Channel’s Shake It Up — “for a lot.”
“Some of the stories she’s shared about what she’s had to go through with Twitter and everything,” he said. “I appreciated her wisdom and discernment when it comes to this business. I admire that.”
Which is sort of talking around it, but I’m fine with that because truly, there’s nothing really shocking about a 24-year-old woman in a real or fictional relationship with a 36-year-old man. John David’s point is that Zendaya is an industry veteran and this part was written for her. I’ve also read a breakdown of the story, and I’m pretty sure the age difference is important in the film. Anyway, as Zendaya was promoting the film this week, she was asked about the age difference too, and she pointed out why so many people are concerned:
Malcolm & Marie premieres on Feb. 5, and it’s safe to say the Oscar buzz has already begun. However, some have been critical of the age gap between 24-year-old Zendaya and 36-year-old John. The way the former Disney Channel star sees it, the fixation comes from the fact that “I’ve played a 16-year-old since I was 16.”
“You have to remember, also, people grew up with me as a child,” Zendaya added. “It’s like watching, I guess, your younger sibling now, you know, they’re grown…So it’s hard for people to wrap around the idea that I am grown in real life. You know, even though I do play a teenager on television still.”
Yeah, that’s pretty much it. She’s been famous for playing a teenager for eight years and she still plays a teen on Euphoria, and now people can’t comprehend that she is, in fact, a grown-ass woman and capable of playing grown-ass women. Anyway, I’m looking forward to Malcolm & Marie, if only to watch two beautiful people fight in a beautiful home.
Photos courtesy of Dominic Miller/Netflix © 2021.
I”ll comment on this age difference as long as people comment on the age difference of a 36 year old woman with a 24 year old man. The “men should be older than women” in a relationship meme must die. What I am also sick of is women in their underwear in movies, fashion, advertising, celebrity photos, wtf?
The guy is still fully-dressed!!!! They better show him taking care of some household duties and checking on kids while she’s changing into more underwear *eyeroll* Seriously, that’s the only reason my husband still has his work clothes on after I’ve changed into my pajamas.
Just going to fyi that the choice for having Marie in her underclothes was Zendaya’s (https://youtu.be/OyDwww4yAbY at the 4:00-4:20 mark), apparently Levinson asked her whether she wanted to wear more, but Z wanted her “without her armour”.
Your last sentence- exactly. And then it gets twisted into some fake feminist propaganda that appeals to the woke hipsters, trying to make a point and yet having no idea what they are talking about.
I’ve the same age with my husband but reversed 😉
I love Z but yeah now her comments completely miss the point. It’s not about how I see her or John David who I also love. It’s about this messy dynamic that we all gave the side eye to with IRL couples like Florence Pugh and Zach Braff. Women dating younger men are some wild curiosity. Men dating younger women is some norm that were all supposed to accept despite a messy power dynamic.
But sure – it’s about her being on the Disney channel.
The age difference between Pugh and Braff is larger though. Also, he’s so gross.
I get the point, but I’ll watch this.
Also, a 12 year age difference when the younger partner is 24 is very different from a 12 year age difference when the younger partner is in their 30s.
For me a 24 year old and a 36 year old as a couple isn’t, on its own, going to keep me from watching something, but I need the age difference to be acknowledged in some way. Like if a movie or tv show treats that big an age difference as a complete non-issue, that bothers me much more than the age difference itself.
I was 23 when I got married and my husband was 35. About to celebrate our 10 year anniversary next week. So a 12 year age difference isn’t a big deal to me at all if all the other factors line up – maturity levels, interests, etc
@Erica, but maturity levels lining up is exactly the problem in those types of relationships. Either the 24 year old woman has to have the maturity of a 36 year old, or a 36 year old man has to be about as mature as a 24 year old. Neither of those two things are good.
Women are constantly being asked to be and act more mature than their years, while men are given a free pass for never growing up and maturing to begin with. One party is shouldered with a burden they shouldn’t necessarily have to bear, while the other party gets to offload when they should really be responsible for their own shit.
I am not saying relationships of this type can’t, or don’t, succeed. They do. And I’m not saying every relationship of this type face the sort of problems I outlined above. They don’t. But the dynamic deserves some closer scrutiny, because in a lot of the relationships of this type, this is what happens. And people struggle, and suffer, as a result of our failure to understand.
As someone who has dated people much much older, like 20 years, for a lot of my relationships, I feel like 24 and 36 is not really that big of a difference. There’s a lot of overlap of both maturity and immaturity depending on what people have experienced up to each point. Also, a 12-year difference puts them in the same Chinese astrological sign so that’s another reason you see couples get along so well with that particular age difference, the affinity in their astrology and sharing the same corresponding animal.
I agree. Not only does she play a teenager but she still looks like quite a young teenager whereas JDW looks so much older. I like them both and want their careers to succeed but it is not just the age difference, it’s the skin color prejudice at work (Hollywood’s continuing idealization of very light-skinned Black women only — this is an ongoing issue with the rich old white men who run the industry) and issues of male privilege, that are going unacknowledged. It’s not the actors’ fault, or their doing, it’s the industry. The people who should be asked about this are the studio heads, the producers, the director.
I had no idea Pugh and Braff were dating. That is a rather large age difference. I don’t see 24/36 as being problematic, but then I don’t follow Zendaya and never watched her shows, so I don’t see her as being a teenager as some do.
…yeah, this is pretty much the same “Is Arya Stark Old Enough To Have Sex?” debate all over again. It will be long before it’s over, so I’m not gonna make a big deal out of it.
This reminds me of the film, Closer. I am here for it.
Omg, that movie killed me..
That is EXACTLY what I thought…that it mirrors Jude Law’s & Natalie Portman’s storyline in “Closer” which is one of my ALL TIME FAVES❣
I hope it ends the same….
The age difference in their cases isn’t really the real issue in this movie. If we rely solely on aesthetics of the film ie the visual, Zendaya despite being 24 years old still looks like a young teenager of 17 years old and John Washington really looks his aged. So it ‘s deeply disturbing. You just have to watch the trailer without the sound and without knowing so that the plot of the film takes on another meaning as David Slade’ s movie Hard Candy. He wouldn’t have had a criticisms of the age difference if she had been paired up with someone else .
Watching the trailer, I find it hard to believe who a couple have been together for a long time because of that but also the lack of chemistry between the two. And I still thought that Zendaya didn’t have the depth and versatility as an actress yet for this type of role. Nicole Beharie would have been a better choice or KiKi Layne.
That’s my issue too! Also, for me 12 year age gap isn’t really the main problem, it’s that I don’t buy a 24 year old in this domesticated role. I can’t get behind that! She’s not like a mid-western military wife who settled down young. The concept of the film is unbelievable for me.
Good point
I want to be excited for this movie, but I honestly think the trailer looks very…awkward? Like strange dialogue and not a lot of chemistry.
I agree. Someone up thread mentioned Nicole Beharie and now I can’t unsee her being in this role. I like the male actor and I think Zendya is doing ok, but them together seem odd– strange even and that eeriness plays into the overall tone for me so I might pass when I usually might have given this a shot. It’s like a little kid playing at a big relationship with a grown man being a grown man.
People are really upset about a 24yo actor and a 36yo actor playing romantic partners? …What?
She presents as young so it appears starker visually as it normally would if someone else was probably selected for the role.
The Kylie Jenner and every other makeup soaked influencer of the world have really warped what we see as a 24 year old. (Kylie is 23! She’s looked like a plastic 30-something for half a decade!) Zendaya LOOKS 24 in the real world, but celebs aren’t the real world.
To me, and I’m 37 so that colors my view here, Zendaya presents as young, as supported by the fact she still gets roles as a teenager. I see 24-year-olds and they look like babies to me and I have to check myself that 😃, but even besides that Zendaya comes across as a young-un. I think mature content as an actor would be fine for her if she wants to transition because she has the acting chops but the differences are quite stark when put with a grown man.
I think this conversation is not really about Zendaya as it is about Hollywood in general, and is a conversation that needs to keep happening. Why are men in their 30s/40s so often paired with young women? It’s exausting.
That being said, I’m excited for this movie. If they really acknowledge the age difference for a plot point, even better.
I’ve never watched Zendaya in anything but Disney shows and Spiderman so I’m kinda excited to see what the Emmy is about. Love her, but cant bother to watch euphoria lol.
Love, love , love both of these actors! I guess I should be bothered about the age difference but it wouldn’t have occurred to me unless pointed out. I think they look in the same age range ( just me?!?)
One things for certain, they both have the chops
I think she has a point – in my head she’s like a very mature 19/20 year old, but she’s 24, and this seems like a deliberate choice to step into more adult roles. She can’t play teenagers forever.
I’ll be curious to see if the age difference is something brought up in the film. I don’t think it’s a massive difference, but it is there.
John David Washington sounds so much like his dad! I think he looks more like his mom, but he definitely has a similar voice to his dad.
” She can’t play teenagers forever.”
And god knows with Hollywood’s “standards”, in five years she will be 29, and too “old” to play a 20 year old. 😀
I adore her and she was just fantastic in Euphoria.
Personally, I thought the age gap was part of the narrative. Isn’t it about a couple in the industry, and one feeling she’s been used as a trophy-muse who is kind of disposable, or at least her and her contribution are not taken seriously? (Actually – to the commenter above – it is kind of like Dan and Alice in Closer, lol.)
The age gap represents part of the disparity/inbalance to me that frequently occurs in that type of relationship, so it honestly hasn’t bothered me.
There are going to be age gaps. This film presenting that isn’t going to stop it. I think I’ll actually be more disappointed if it isn’t referenced at all but I’ll be sure to watch it nontheless as I love both the actors and Sam Levinson seems to be doing well with dialogue-driven character pieces lately. I’m already in, ngl.
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The age gap isn’t even an age gap, the issue is that she appears to be 16 while he looks 40. I was immediately turned off by their supposed sexy scenes, just No.
I’m 10 years younger than Boyfriend.
For the most part, it doesn’t affect much. Because no one notices really.
Occasionally pop culture discussions or nostalgia can turn into blips- a favorite childhood holiday movie he dismissed as “stupid” made sense when it was brought up yeah, he was 20 in college and I was 10 in elementary school. Of course we wouldn’t experience that memory the same way…
TBH the wider conversation I’ve seen was more in line with how the younger female love interest is frustrating because it creates less work for actresses of similar ages of the male actors.
In this case Zendaya was heavily involved in the creation/production, so I don’t think she’s done anything wrong.
But yeah, I think it’s more being seen as… oh how groundbreaking, a leading man who couldn’t possibly be dating/interested in someone in his own age group. People (including me) are over it.
I think she really misses the mark of the criticism. Sure, she looks young. But we know she’s in her 20s. For me, that’s not the issue. The issue is that again, its playing into a dynamic that values youth and handicaps older actresses. I mean, in reality, a 35 year old woman in Hollywood (John David’s age) is either struggling for work, getting fillers and procedures to pass for younger, or getting cast in maternal roles at this point. I haven’t seen the film, but unless their age gap is a central point of the film (and maybe it is, who knows?),the question is why an older actress could not have been cast.
It’s not so much disturbing to me as it is annoyingly stereotypical. Do you find 25 year old women with older male partners? Sure, but it’s noticeable Hollywood doesn’t cast it the opposite way. Women are mainly kept in the narrow 20-35 category, while men can be continuously aged up. And while it’s not her fault she looks young, it becomes A Choice when you pair somebody with that look with a costar who looks his age. She didn’t do anything wrong, per se, but she is unintentionally feeding into that fetishization of female youth when she picks a role an older woman could have played.
Nothing ruins a pro age-gap argument faster than “maturity levels” or “old soul” or “mature for her/his age.”
Stop the clownery.
The reason this doesn’t get called out more often is because people in the comments will always go “I was 20 and my husband was 40 and we’re still happy and together #goals” and nobody has the heart to come for an internet stranger like that. But fr tho, you sound dumb as hell when you say sh*t like that lmao
She looks 17. There are young-uns who actually look like they’re in their 20s, not surgery needed, but they never cast as these roles. I wonder why…
While I don’t think this age gap in particular is necessarily toxic, it is not really ok and not something that should go without notice as if it is expected or desirable. Which is what always happens.
We’re still selling women (esp Black women) that this is what they should want and need. Have an older man “take care” of you and become a housewife from the 50s. This is not ok.
Kinda disappointed in Z, but she young. She got time to learn.