What a win.
During last night’s Emmy Awards — hosted virtually as the coronavirus crisis carries on into its sixth month — Zendaya became the youngest performer to ever receive the prize for Best Actress in a Drama Series.
She was given the award for her star performance in the HBO coming-of-age series “Euphoria.” And, she beat out fellow powerhouse actresses Jodie Comer, Sandra Oh, Laura Linney, Olivia Colman and Jennifer Aniston for the win.
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The actress — well-known for her earlier work as a Disney star, as well as her roles in recent Spider-Man movies and hit musical “The Greatest Showman” — acknowledged that it was “a really weird time to be celebrating” as she accepted the honor remotely.
But, she continued, “there is hope in the young people out there,” and “I just want to say to all my peers out there doing the work in the streets, ‘I see you, I admire you, I thank you.'” Young people have been leading the activism charge for numerous causes, including protesting persistent, large-scale problems like climate change and systemic racism.
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Zendaya has spoken on this subject before, most notably for an InStyle feature in which she hesitated to apply the “activist” label to herself. Activism “is a choice every day to be doing the work and devoting your life to a cause. And I don’t feel I am deserving of the title,” she said.
But she noted the inspiration she gets from her peers, and those who are following behind her — such as her young niece. “[W]hen I see her Instagram posts and the things she’s talking about, it’s really special,” she says. “She is only 15, and we can have a dialogue about what’s happening. So clearly there is hope in the youth. That makes me want to keep going.”
[Related: Google’s Doodle of the First Asian-American Film Star Reminds Us How Far We Have to Go]
Featured Image Credit: Gage Skidmore, Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons
Video Credit: YouTube, Television Academy
The post After Historic Emmys Win, Zendaya Tells Young People: ‘I See You, I Admire You’ appeared first on The Story Exchange.
Author: Candice Helfand-Rogers
Source : https://thestoryexchange.org/zendaya-youngest-win-best-actress-drama-series-2020-emmys/
Date : 2020-09-21T14:24:07.000Z