Zendaya has spoken out about the negative reception to her new film Malcolm & Marie.

Zendaya stated that her “agency was stripped away” by outcry over “Malcolm & Marie” being written and directed by a white director in a recent interview with The New York Times.

While “Malcolm & Marie” is credited to Zendaya’s “Euphoria” creator Sam Levinson as the writer and director, Zendaya retains her voice and perspective throughout the narrative. The film received mostly poor reviews.

Many of the film’s critics lambasted Levinson, 36, for directing a picture with black protagonists. It “initially has good intentions – defending black art,” reviewer Robert Daniels stated in a review for The Guardian, “but once Levinson begins positing his gripes through Malcolm (Washington), a black man, his sincere aims trend toward being selfishly malicious.”

“If Levinson only used Malcolm to extricate white critical blindspots concerning interpreting the value of black art through a white lens,” Daniels says. “Malcolm & Marie would be a fresh dose of truth serum. Levinson, a white director, uses Malcolm as a black shield for his real target, not the critics who analyze black works, but the ones who interpret his.”

Zendaya has responded to the outrage.

Zendaya addressed the film’s critics, notably the 12-year age difference between herself and the 36-year-old starring man, John David Washington.

“I’m Marie’s age, and I think that dynamic, their age difference, is part of their story: She met him when she was in recovery [at] 20 years old,” the actress remarked of the age disparity in the relationship depicted in the film. “She never really loved anyone or thought someone loved her the way he did.”

It also feeds into Zendaya’s dissatisfaction with not receiving the acknowledgement that the character was whining about. The actress also revealed that her character believes she is entitled to something, and also acknowledges her being young and fragile.

Sam Levinson and Zendaya | CREDIT: MONICA SCHIPPER/GETTY IMAGES

“And that plays into her frustrations [about] not receiving the acknowledgment she feels she deserves and also maybe unpacks something [about] her being young and vulnerable,” she added.

The former Disney Channel star also mentioned that some of the anger might be due to the fact that she has been portraying teens for years.

“None of us who made the movie think that they’re, like, in a healthy relationship, you know what I mean?” Zendaya told the New York Times regarding the couple’s toxic connection.

“I think it was to explore those insecurities and those dark things about ourselves that I think sometimes relationships can bring out of us.”

“Of course,” Zendaya answered when asked by the Times if she and Washington were able to give Levinson input on “different aspects of the Black experience. “What’s interesting is I think a little bit of our agency was stripped away. Like this was just kind of Sam spewing things through us without realizing that we are not only actors in this, but we’re co-financiers and producers with P.G.A. [Producers Guild of America] marks. You can’t get those unless you actually do the job.”

“I think it also oddly mirrors a little bit of Marie’s plight, right?” Zendaya continued. “It’s like Marie saying the whole movie [Malcolm’s film] is also mine. But actually in real life, we do have the credit, this is ours, and John David, I, and Sam equally own this film. It’s not like it belongs to someone else and I just got cast in it. He wrote it for us too, and I think if you’re going to write something, you have to acknowledge experiences of the [Black] character you’re writing. I thought a lot of conversations I had with Sam came through.”

Zendaya collaborates with Sam on the HBO drama series Euphoria, for which she won the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series Emmy for the first time last year.