What Zendaya Leaves Unsaid

Why is Zendaya a mononymic star? It was an early bet on her potential for leading-lady singularity. Interviewed at twenty, on the cusp of graduating from sitcom-teen workhorse to the love interest in “Spider-Man,” Zendaya explained, in her gracefully blasé way, that she “just thought it was cool, like Cher or Prince.” She will turn thirty in September. With four film projects landing this year, from a salty indie to a summer blockbuster, along with the latest season of “Euphoria,” her ascent to rarified fame seems uncontested. But what about who she is—her interiority—as a grown-up performer? Zendaya and her film audience still seem to be figuring that out.