Zendaya Answers Personality Revealing Questions | Proust Questionnaire | Vanity Fair

Lowest depths of misery. Um, oh man. This is like, this is getting deep! Linnea, you are about to take Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire. You will be asked 35 questions in rapid succession in order to reveal your true nature. Oh geez. Once a question has been read out, you will have five seconds to answer before we move on. Once we have completed all 35 questions, you will have a chance to reflect on and even correct your answers. All right. Sounds scary. Question number one. What is your idea of perfect happiness? Um, I would say doing what I love. Doing it with people that I love. What is your greatest fear? I think it's probably disappointing the ones that I, that I care about. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? Ooh, I like to think I don't deplore anything about myself. I mean, there's things I could improve on, like my vocabulary, but other than that, I'm not, I don't, I don't hate anything. What is the trait you most deplore in others? In others? Um, I think greed. Uh, for sure. Which living person do you most admire? Probably my grandmothers. What is your greatest extravagance? Greatest extravagance? Oh man. I feel like I'm not a super extravagant person. Probably just the fact that I, I mean, I get to do what I do for a living. I think it's really, um, kind of crazy. It's an extravagant lifestyle that's kind of ridiculous sometimes. What is your current state of mind? I think I am in a state of gratitude. Just this past year with everything I think of, just learned to be even more grateful for the things that I have and try to take in literally every moment while it's happening. Take nothing for granted. What do you consider the most overrated virtue? I don't know if they're overrated. I think you kind of, you know, like patience is like key. It really is. Like they say patience is a virtue, but you need patience. It's a good thing. Sometimes I have to work on that. Um, I don't know if any of them are overrated. On what occasion do you lie? I'm a really bad liar, which is ironic because I'm an actor. The only time I lie is probably when I'm acting because I'm doing things that I've been saying things I probably would never want to do or say. What do you most dislike about your appearance? I promote self-love and I think I have to live that too. So I definitely try not to be critical of myself and my appearance. I think it's not fair to like say someone is full of themselves or whatever if they actually just love themselves. So I'm not going to say that I dislike anything about my appearance. I'm going to, uh, to love myself. Which living person do you most despise? Oh, geez. I mean, there's, there's a few out there. The last name kind of rhymes with dump. What is the quality you most like in a man? Um, I'm most like in a person. How about that? Oh, this is, this is so, it's such a big question. What is the quality I'm most like in someone? I would say like kindness is kind of like not the best way to describe it. But, um, some people are just good people and you can just feel it. And I don't know how to explain that. But there's like this little spark they have or this little special thing that they have that just, you feel safe and happy around them. I don't know what that is. But some people have it and it's special. What is the quality you most like in a woman? Um, well, I guess that's the same answer. Which words or phrases do you most overuse? Uh, um, I say, um, far too much. I watch my interviews and I'm like, you sound dumb as shit. What or who is the greatest love of your life? Other than I think my family is like my, my work, my job. I mean, I really love what I do and I'm so grateful that I get to do what I love to do. But it doesn't even feel like a job. When and where were you happiest? Again, when I'm working. It's so terrible. Again, I don't feel like it's work. I get to be beside people that I care about and like, surrounded by like these creative, amazing, talented people. And I love being able to get up and go to work every day. So with that being said, when I get to do a different project or find a different character and go to work every day, I'm happiest. Which talent would you most like to have? I don't know. Sometimes I wish I was, did more physical activity kind of things. So if I was like, I consider it talent, but like some sport or, you know, martial art or something of that sort. I don't know. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I don't think I would wish anything to change. I just want to be able to continue to just kind of to grow really, which requires change. What do you consider your greatest achievement? I think when people are able to connect with any part of what I do, and it was somehow able to positively impact their life, where they felt seen in some way, those are the moments where I feel the most proud of what I do. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be? Oh man, I don't know. I mean, my dog who has a fucking wonderful life, it would not be bad because Noon lives the life. Stress free. And all he gets to do is just be cuddled and fed. Where would you most like to live? Somewhere on a lot of land where I can just kind of hide out and like, I don't know, have like a vegetable garden and shit. And just like have everything I need in one place and be amongst nature and stuff. What is your most treasured possession? I take a lot of like Polaroid pictures of my family. And also all the like art and stuff that my little nieces and nephews give to me. As they grow up, I like saving it. I'm that auntie. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? Lowest depths of misery? Oh man, this is like getting deep. Lowest depths of misery is when you actually enjoy making other people miserable too. When it's not just like yourself, but now you want to make other people feel that, which is a dark place to be. What is your favorite occupation? Obviously the one I get to do. I love, like I said, I love my job. But if I wasn't doing this, I'd be a teacher. I think teachers are the most valuable underpaid jobs that we have. So both my parents are teachers. What is your most marked characteristic? I don't know. My eyebrows? I don't know. This is, I don't know. I don't know. What do you value most in your friends? I think their ability to just see me, if that makes sense. See me wholly. And like anytime I'm faking it or something's going on, they just can see through all of it. And you need those kinds of people, you know, that are judgment-free and just look at you and see you at the end of the day. Who are your favorite writers? Sam Levinson. Who is your hero of fiction? Hero of fiction? I don't know. Which historical figure do you most identify with? I don't know. I have this thing. See, I'm going to try to explain myself. We can just move on. I'll explain myself later. Who are your heroes in real life? My siblings, who are much older than me. I'm the youngest. My grandmothers, my little nieces and nephews even. Yeah, corny answer, but yeah, my family. What are your favorite names? My favorite names? It's funny. I don't know. I'm really bad at picking things, which is what I was going to get into later. What is it that you most dislike? I don't know, bad people? Like, I don't know, people who are racist? Shitty people. What is your greatest regret? I don't have one. I don't have a regret, thankfully. I try to do things that I won't regret. I always find that everything literally happens for a reason. It takes whatever that instance was to learn from it, honestly. How would you like to die? Oh, I don't like answering those kinds of questions. What is your motto? My motto is, don't be an asshole. So that concludes the questionnaire. How was that? How was it? Actually, stressful. I'm not gonna lie to you. It's really hard for me to pick one thing. Like, I don't have a favorite movie. I don't have a favorite color. I don't have favorite food. I never have. My whole life, I never was like, oh, this is my favorite color. This is my favorite food as a kid. It's kind of a personality trait of mine is the inability to quite specifically choose anything. Which question was the hardest one to answer? The hardest one to answer? When it's like, how do you want to die? It's like, I don't want to answer that question. Hopefully, I want to die fulfilled and happy. You said that where you'd like to live is somewhere on a lot of land where I can just kind of hide out and like, I don't know, have like a vegetable garden and shit. Can you tell us why? I like the idea of kind of being in a space where you're kind of detached from like the world a little bit. And you can just walk around and be in nature. I actually found this when we were shooting Malcolm & Marie because we kind of lived in this ranch thing all together. This kind of like small bubble of our production. And we shot also in a place that was kind of in the middle of nowhere. And it was actually really, really nice, you know, to kind of be detached from everything. And every day I would like see deer like, you know, running around. And I don't know, you just feel more appreciative for all these like little things, you know. But then also in the same token, I wish I lived in New York because I love the hustle and bustle of it. I love being able to take the subway and walk around and do stuff. So I don't know. It's like two sides. So in response to your favorite writers, you said Sam Levinson. Yeah. Can you tell us why? Why? Because Sam is a genius in my opinion. I think he's brilliant. And he has a way of being honest and open and vulnerable about his own personal stories and his own life, which we've seen through Euphoria and now in some ways through Malcolm & Marie. But he also is, I think, a true collaborator as well. I talk to him almost every day. And while, you know, even now while he's writing season two, or, you know, when we were starting the initial conversations about Malcolm & Marie, he was writing the script and he'd read me 10 pages at a time and then we'd talk about it for hours on end, you know. He values, I think, collaboration and other people's ideas and experiences and opinions. And I think that even when I, back on Euphoria, when I wasn't a producer yet, you know, I still felt that what I had to contribute was being listened to. And valued. And plus, I know it's bad, but I don't read as much as I should. I'm trying to get better at that. And I often get bored, like reading. I get either bored or I get like anxious because I'm only, I'm just thinking about how many more pages I have left to read. Especially if I have to read a script and they need an answer by, you know, Wednesday. Sam's one of the few people that his writing doesn't ever make me tune out. I'm engaged and care about all the characters from the beginning and I just want to keep reading, which is very rare for me. When I asked you which talent you would most like to have, you said some sport or, you know, martial art or something of that sort. What are some physical activities that you would want to maybe become proficient at? I remember when I did Greatest Showman and I had to work out every day and I got to do this trapeze training and just how cool that was. That I was developing this new skill and this new talent, you know, for something. And watching kind of my body transform and watching get better every day as I went back to training and got up there and climbed that ladder and, you know, jumped off. And, you know, I felt my body find out what it was capable of as it was happening. And that was really, really special. So I wish I developed more of those kind of physical talents as well. In response to the question, what is your greatest extravagance? You actually said probably just the fact that I mean, I get to do what I do for a living. Why is that? A part of my job is I also get to wear beautiful clothes that are like, you know, handmade and custom made for me sometimes and, you know, extremely expensive. And, you know, it is crazy. And I mean, I respect the the art and the work that, you know, goes into a garment. But it is pretty crazy that that's part of my life, you know, that that's like, I get to do these things and like travel places like to promote a movie that I'm in. Like, that's just such a crazy concept, you know, and I'm so lucky that that's what I get to do and get to call my day job. So final question, which is, do you think these questions have revealed your true nature? Um, I mean, yeah, like I said, I'm definitely a bad liar. So everything that's said is true. I guess the true nature, I think, of all of this is that I'm still growing and learning. And so maybe that's why I can't answer a lot of the questions, because I'm still in a phase of growth and understanding who I am. Even I think I'm lucky and unlucky that I'm doing it in front of the world. But I think my indecisiveness maybe reflects the fact that I am still figuring it out.