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It’s been over 10 years since Zendaya came in second place to Kellie Pickler on Dancing With the Stars, but that loss still haunts her. The actress and singer spoke to W magazine about how she doesn’t watch the reality TV show anymore, in part because of her experience on it.
“Listen, I’m still harboring a little animosity about that. I felt that loss,” she said of the 2013 season in which she competed. “I was only 16 years old, and it was highly stressful. Being on live television every week? It’s so scary. I took it very seriously, which, in retrospect, I wish I didn’t. I wish I’d enjoyed it a little bit more and just was like, ‘Eh, whatever.’ You know what I mean? But I was stressing myself out. I really went through it on that.”
Zendaya on season 16 of Dancing With the Stars
She also admitted to W magazine that she very much identifies as her astrological sign, Virgo. They are “controlling, perfectionists, self-critical, loyal, loving,” she said. “Controlling in the sense of like, ‘It’s fine, I’ll just do it myself. You don’t need to help me. I can do it. It’s fine.’ I actually got in trouble in class when I was a kid, because it would be group projects and I would do all the work. I was like, ‘You guys are going to mess it up, so don’t worry, I’ll do everything.’” (For more on Virgos, see the AstroTwins’ take on the star sign.)
Acting helps her let go of that perfectionist tendency a bit: “It allows me the space to be less self-critical and try things, because I don’t have to deal with the consequences of the character’s actions in real life,” she said. “When I’m [Euphoria’s] Rue or when I’m [Challengers’] Tashi, for example, I can just be messy, let the instincts come, and not judge myself because I’m not judging them.”
Creating characters when she does red carpet dressing offers her a similar escape: “It’s an odd thing to get up in front of people and pose in a crazy outfit,” she told the outlet. “For me, if I create a character, it makes it feel less strange.”