Zendaya Opens Up About Hopes For Rue Following Painful ‘Euphoria’ Episode

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Last night’s episode of Euphoria had fans’ blood pressure rising in unison. Zendaya gave a spectacular performance, trending on social media for her portrayal of Rue as someone who hit rock bottom in the season’s fifth episode.

Just about halfway through the show, there was already lots of Emmy buzz around her performance.

As entertaining as things appeared on screen, Zendaya recently opened up about her hope for how viewers perceive Rue this second season of Euphoria.

Last night, Zendaya shared her message about her hopes for Rue moving forward through the series. Her words were an excerpt from an interview she previously did with Esquire about the character:

“It’s my hope for people watching that they still see [Rue] as a person worthy of their love,” Zendaya wrote. “And worthy of their time, and that she has a redemptive quality still, and that we still see the good in her even if she can’t see it in herself.”

Zendaya continued:

“I think that if people can go with her through that, and get to the end, and still have hope for her future, and watch her make the changes and steps to heal and humanize her through her sobriety journey and her addiction, then maybe they can extend that to people in real life.

If you can love her, then you can love someone that is struggling with the same thing, and maybe have a great understanding of the pain they’re facing that is often out of their control.”

Zendaya added “I care about her deeply,” in regards to her Euphoria character.

“I also care about the people who care about her, because I think many of them share her story of addiction and sobriety, and many of them share a lot of her emotion disorders, and I think it’s important that we continue to have that love for her.

I think it’s important that we have characters that are flawed. And remember that we are not the worst mistake that we have ever made. An that redemption is possible.”

Whew! You can certainly tell Zendaya cares. She previously snagged an Emmy for her portrayal of Rue in season one, making history as the youngest actress ever to receive the award for Oustanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.