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Zendaya recently reflected on her Disney Channel roots and how she felt the need to set boundaries as a teen star.
The actress was 14-years-old when she took on the role of Rocky Blue on Disney’s Shake It Up, and the show was a network hit for three seasons. As the cover feature of this month’s British Vogue, Zendaya told the magazine, “I remember being on Shake It Up and being like, ‘I’m not gonna do this. I’m going to kiss him on the cheek because I haven’t been kissed yet so I don’t want the kiss to be on camera.”
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Currently, the recently turned 25-year-old Emmy winner isn’t shying away from on-screen PDA. In addition to starring in HBO’s Euphoria — a show that explores the complexities of sexuality, drug addiction, gender, and self-expression through the lens of Gen Z teenage life, Zendaya made headlines earlier this year due to her grown and sexy role in Netflix’s Malcolm & Marie — a romantic drama with John David Washington as her love interest, an actor twelve years her senior.
In an effort to address the controversy surrounding her role as Marie and the age gap between herself and Washington, Zendaya previously told Entertainment Tonight Canada, “I guess I kind of understand it a little bit because I have been playing 16 since I was 16.”
In real life, the actress is rumored to be dating her on-screen romantic partner in the upcoming film Spider-Man: No Way Home, Tim Holland, also 25.
While rumors of the two being an item have swirled since they filmed 2016’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, Zendaya and Holland have constantly laughed off the romantic speculation surrounding them — even after PEOPLE shared that they were a couple back in 2017.
Zendaya has remained notoriously private about her dating life and the Spider-Man stars never confirmed they were in a relationship. Still, the dating rumors between the two were reignited back in July of this year, when they were spotted kissing in a car while stopped at a traffic light in Los Angeles.
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