Actress branches out in new role
exciting to me,” Zendaya said of the love story that drew her to the feature film.
The actress recently talked about “Greatest Showman” and her career.
Were you terrified of twirling 40 feet in the air?
A lot of times we’re hooked up to wires. When I first did my trapeze, I had been training on another rig that I had gotten very used to, and I had a net. Then when I showed up to set, the rigs were 15 feet taller and there was no net, and that freaked me out. But you know what? I did it.
How did you and Zac Efron learn to trust each other?
On the first day, they harnessed us together and lifted us into the air, so we had to quite literally start holding each other’s weight and lifting each other up. We became a team very, very quickly. Any injuries? Nothing crazy. Zac and I would compare our little battle wounds, and the next day we’d be taped up and smell like Tiger Balm, but you just keep going.
Season three of “K.C. Undercover,” which is currently airing, will be your last hurrah on the Disney Channel.
The only reason I wanted to come back to the Disney Channel is because there was a lack of diversity at that time. There weren’t any leads or families of color, and I felt like that was something that needed to happen. And I thought the idea of a girl doing a “guy role” was really important. Young women are able to look at the screen and see that they can be anything, that they can do it all. A little boy can look up to a girl and say, “I want to be like this girl.” And that’s awesome.
You have become a role model for 46 million Instagram followers. How does that kind of responsibility feel?
It feels great. Of course, I’m human, so there are times where I get stressed like anybody else. But at the end of the day, I try to look at it as a very positive thing, as a gift. I have millions of people who look to me for guidance, and I try to be the best me so that I can try to get them to be the best of themselves. Once a month, we check in on the supply and demand at the Columbus Metropolitan Library: Burke James Lee Jayne Ann Krentz Jojo Moyes J.D. Robb Stuart Woods