In “Promising Young Woman,” Carey Mulligan’s Cassie has been knocked off track by the rape of her best friend, Nina. In the aftermath, Cassie has devoted herself to a life of revenge — but it’s getting her nowhere. Mulligan and Emerald Fennell, the writer-director of “Promising Young Woman,” clearly formed a close bond, which she discusses with Zendaya — who has a similarly simpatico relationship with Sam Levinson, the writer-director of her forthcoming film, “Malcolm & Marie” (and the creator of HBO’s “Euphoria,” for which she won an Emmy in September).
In “Malcolm & Marie” — shot in June and July in Carmel, Calif., under COVID-19 protocols, one of the first films to do so — Zendaya plays the girlfriend of a stubborn director (John David Washington), who stays up late on the night of his premiere to argue (passionately) in the style of a Tennessee Williams play, about his art. And in a move that Marie would approve of, Zendaya asks Mulligan about her calling out Variety’s tone-deaf review of “Promising Young Woman” and our subsequent apology.
Watch their full conversation for Variety‘s Actors on Actors, presented by Amazon Studios, above.
