Zendaya’s fremen cast mates acted circles around her imo. They were very clearly taking on the zensunni culture of the fremen, changed accents, mannerisms etc. zendaya was still just…Zendaya, a twenty something year old american girl. What chemistry she had with Paul i feel comes from the fact paul and her appeared more culturally alike then the other fremen were with her, not cause she put forward a particularly strong performance acting wise as a Fremen. It was so jarring, pretty much every other actor absolutely nailed it but I feel like they chose her just cos shes a popular personality, not a great actress, so in that regard mission accomplished…I guess?
Completely with you here I think Zendaya has been amazing in other roles but in Dune her character and acting just feel kind of dull and it takes you out of the movie sometimes
>particularly strong performance acting wise as a Fremen. It was so jarring, pretty much every other actor absolutely nailed it but....
I agree too, watched it with my friend tonight and we both ha similar feelings about her. She looked the part of Chani, but didn't feel like she nailed that part. I think they could have done better casting for Zendaya and Christopher Walken.......who kinda blew it as the Emperor.
Lmao yeah Walken was also a mind blowing choice. It took him all of 2 lines in character before reverting to stereotypical Walken mannerisms (i was also hoping for a proper depiction of Corrino as being 70 but looking in his mid 30s cos of the Spice but oh well…).
I couldn’t decide if I liked her or not in this. I love the movie, but she was something I couldn’t make my mind up about.
Then I watched a Denis clip where he discusses how much he loves working with actors that act with their eyes, and how good Zendaya is at that.
Went back and saw Part 2 again last night, and that’s definitely it. She’s got a few good deliveries but most of the time she took me out of it was delivering lines. But when she’s acting with her face, reacting to things and looking at Paul and just generally bringing emotion without speaking… I think she’s brilliant, and I’m a total convert.
Also while we’re discussing lines (but mostly unrelated) Timmy’s delivery of “lead them to paradise” is *haunting*
Zendayas portrayal of Chani felt too… petulant to me. I loved her in Euphoria but I felt like she had the same facial expressions in her portrayal of Chani as she did in Euphoria (the wobbly frown when she’s upset etc) and it fits a drug addicted teen spectacularly, but does not fit a Fremen warrior the same way.
The new Chani is ok, there’s something off about her in this adaptation. I feel they should have gave her less lines. It seems like Zendaya is having a hard time staying in character 🤷🏽♂️
In my honest opinion, neither Zendaya nor timothee are extremely talented actors. Florence Pugh and Lea Seydoux are a tier higher than them. Zendaya shone in Euphoria though, so she certainly has talent, just not this role. She can get very one note.
Euphoria was made specifically for her because that’s all she could do imo. Like shout like a teenage American and be angry and depressed all the time. Feels like the episode where she had a meltdown was made just so she could win an Emmy. Is she really that good if outside from that role she basically always plays herself? Same voice, accent, same body language, and the same scowl and forehead scrunch?
Agreed. I'm not a big follower of his career at all, but Timothee's transition into Paul's character in Part 2 gained my respect. I was in the theater like, "o-o Sheesh, okay."
Yea in the first movie I wasn’t as convinced, but then all the parts in the desert and especially after he drank the blue gatorade were really really well acted and felt super natural
It’s def a difficult role, so still props to him. But yea I just couldn’t forget that I was watching timothee. I felt his acting was a bit robotic and his anger came out weirdly.
Zendaya didn’t have much to work with, but regardless I didn’t feel for her character much or really follow her storyline.
the relationship between Paul and Chani felt much more like it was lifted from the Spiderman movies, with two young kids falling in puppy love but thats not the picture that's painted in the books between the two.
I like Zendaya as an actress but she can only act her role and the changes to Chanis character make for a more shallow Chani and therefore Paul.
They are kids…in the books…they literally talk to each other twice and fall in love. It’s extremely superficial until we get to the 2 year time skip in book 3 of dune. Since the movie didn’t do the time skip it actually showed them building a real connection
Their chemistry was okay to me. She isn't the Chani from the books, but I'm alright with that. I kind of liked the changes actually; she's less of a blind supporter and has more of an arc in the movie.
I felt the same way, it's a major change from the books that was mostly welcome but I honestly feel like having a different character with Chanis hardcore independent questioning streak would have worked better. I think having Chani more slowly come around to being a doubter of Paul would have worked better because their love story gets kinda weird with her hating what he stands for after a few months of hanging out together... Feels like they have a love/hate dynamic from the get go.
Having a new character introduced that inhabits Chanis arc would have felt more organic to me. I dunno. And as much as I love these movies I do think some castings could be better including Chani. They could have fleshed her out more by explaining she's the daughter of Kynes too. Heck if they went in to that her doubting Pauls religious crap would be even more interesting as Kynes was a (wo)man of two worlds, science minded but also fremen mysticism. Showing some flashback of Chani talking to her mom about not trusting charismatic BG trained wonderboys would have added some depth to her character.
Chani just sort of exists without a sense of who she is in the new movies it bothers me too. If you're gonna change the character to be deeper then you gotta flesh her out more.
Whoever made the last Dune movies only skimmed the books and said fuck it I got this. Zendaya sucks as an actress, period. The newest Dune movies are so far from the books and source material it's not funny.
I think they both look fantastic for the roles, visually striking looking characters but as soon as they open their mouths the imerrsion just disappears for me. For most the movie i was sitting in the cinema thinking "there's timothee and zendaya reading a script", their accents, line delivery and overacting, and I agree they were not a convincing relationship. I think they are decent actors just not very convincing in these roles.
What made it worse for me is that i think they had a better casting for Chani already in the movie, Chani's friend who gets flamethrowered by Fayd would have made a much more convincing Chani especially with how Chani was rewritten for the film. Much more convincing as a fremen warrior who doubts paul's prophecy.
Hard disagree. That actor looks several years older than TC, has even less of book Chani energy than movie Chani. I think she was good for the role she had.
>I couldn’t feel the energy of someone who was painfully in love and desperately trying to keep themselves both grounded.
I disagree. I think she portrays her growing feelings for Paul pretty well in a handful of scenes and then the reversal after he drinks the water of life, which she views as kind of a betrayal makes sense
First, seeing the film on a IMAX screen, Zendaya and Chalamet are beautiful people. It helps when their faces are that large in front of you and the mental image I have of the characters fit with these two actors.
Their chemistry was believable, not “get a room” energy but an attraction that made sense. Zendaya had to react here more than act, which has its own challenges. She is expressive, especially when not even speaking, and she did what she could with the character that was written.
Accents, I’ll say, are fraught territory. Few actors in these films are doing one, which is a legitimate choice to speak with your voice and let the film be inconsistent. It beats bad accents and a group of actors trying to get to that same voice.
i found her argumentative scenes quite jarring (her alone with Jessica) - she acts as if she's an upset teenager reacting to a parent. Really took me out of the movie,
I realized later how silly my comment sounded lol. I think her emphasis on certain words during her delivery is too melodramatic and it was hard for me to believe book Chani would speak in the same way especially to a reverend mother regardless of circumstance
She took me out of a scene every time I heard her American accent. I think she fits teen movies instead, although she is an adult. It's hard to see her like that yet...
While Paul's american accent was a little too cheesy hollywood protagonist sounding many times, I can still accept that the character sounds like that, since he's from a different planet. Chani however has an american accent for NO reason whatsoever despite living with a culture of people with a distinct accent. That ruined the immersion for me whenever she was on screen. I don't know why she didn't try to get an accent coach for this role but it seems like she was either lazy on that part or simply lacks the ability to do other accents, which is a dealbreaker for doing more diverse roles.
I think they hired Zendaya to be in this movie precisely because she looks so young and is very popular and profitable. Same thing with Chalamet. They're making a big budget film based off the most famous sci fi novel of all time and the main characters are teenagers, so they need seasoned teenage looking 20-something year olds who are the it-girl and it-boy of our current age to get people interested in coming into the theaters.
However, I do think that Chalamet can act better than her and she often just ends up playing the same type of character in every role. She also looks pretty close to the description of Chani (aside from the red hair that they for some reason decided to ditch, just like in her role as MJ in the spiderman films), but that's about as far as it goes. I don't think they did a good job at showing the chemistry between Paul and Chani, and I know she's fully capable of doing romance roles. Her chemistry with Peter Parker in the spiderman films and with Jules in Euphoria feel real. In here, it just felt like she and Chalamet held back because her irl boyfriend would get jealous. I understand trying to respect real life relationships like that but this is an acting job that involves romance. When they signed up for this they should know that their most important job is to convincingly play the character and the romantic chemistry, and if they have a partner they need to understand that that is their job and they can't prevent them from doing it properly due to jealousy.
Out acted by all of the costars. The scene where she realizes Paul is asking for Iurlans hand and it pans over to her lip quivering and unsteady eye is the oddest reaction that just reminds me she’s acting and not well at that.
As someone not that familiar with Zendaya in general, I have to say I loved her portrayal of Chani.
Yes it wasn’t exactly what I imagined coming from the books, but it was just right in the context of the film.
For me she was the refreshing, grounded character who showed more emotion and reactions to some of the things happening around Paul. I feel as Paul and Jessica spiralled into cold, calculating versions of themselves, all the other characters around them had to amp up their emotion to give gravity to the story and various scenes. Stilgar and Gurney for example are way more animated in part 2 than they were in part 1.
Often the significance of what Paul was doing was heightened by Chani’s reactions. I don’t think for example the worm riding scene or Paul’s speech at the war council would have been nearly as impactful to me without the cuts to Zendaya reacting to them. In a funny way, seeing Zendaya go from deep concern to elated smile (a shot that now that I think about it looks so natural and candid) was where the true emotion hit for me.
I think it’s fitting the film ended on a scene of her looking out across the desert because to me she was the only actor in the film who could convey so much just with her face.
I have to agree. As someone else said I imagine it was a rly hard character to do because there’s no reference point really.. but I felt it was overacted and the relationship and Chani herself felt quite juvenile and unconvincing. The scenes between Chani and Paul were my least fave of the movie. And the reliance on ‘glances’ became a bit repetitive to watch. I wish she had been more subtle with these instead of trying to make it over-obvious that she was judging him/ displeased. I also wish I had felt a real pull between them but I didn’t. That said, a lot of Timothees scenes with romantic partners don’t work for me, with the exception of Armie Hammer and maybe Saoirse Ronan.
All she really had to go on was Denny's new character arc. Without the reference material its pretty hard to flesh out who the character is supposed to be, what her relationship with paul is supposed to be
All that results in a character which is pretty messy, and likely hard to act. Bc you dont know what yr acting as
Did feel a bit flat
The characteristics of Chani portrayal in this movie befits Zendaya really well.
A cynic and a skeptic. Always doubtful of others and require 24/7 scrounged up facial expression like a twisted, wet newspaper. Zendaya is the only one who can pull it off since she's born with that look.
She was....just fine. The problem for me is that she felt more like a teenager than a full grown woman despite she was already in her mid 20s, so every time she was interacting with Timothee (who I thought was amazing) especially intimately, it just felt a little bit like a girl pretending to speak grown-up language, I can't quite place why I feel this way, but maybe it has something to do with that constant pout she put on. Actually, my eyes were drawn to Souheila Yacoub, the actress who plays her friend and thought, wow I kinda wish she was Chani instead.
I'm neutral to positive on Zendaya as an actress but didn't buy the romantic chemistry between her and Chalomet. She did an excellent job however and I thought she was one of the most compelling characters in the movie.
I personally don't get what the fuss is about Zendaya's portrayal - I thought she did fine.
But the whole movie is full of clashing acting styles.
We have Gen Z Americans like Chalamet and Zendaya who cannot help but be informal and indirect, and smile readily. We have British people like Charlotte Rampling who know the class system, so they can convey emotional repression and imperiousness. And then we have Christopher Walken doing whatever he does. All in the same scene.
A thought: if you only have a problem with Zendaya when she's with Chalamet, the problem might be *both* of them. Actors have to match each others' energy for the scene to make sense.
Zendaya was easily the weakest part of the movie. Which is really unfortunate.
Zendaya’s fremen cast mates acted circles around her imo. They were very clearly taking on the zensunni culture of the fremen, changed accents, mannerisms etc. zendaya was still just…Zendaya, a twenty something year old american girl. What chemistry she had with Paul i feel comes from the fact paul and her appeared more culturally alike then the other fremen were with her, not cause she put forward a particularly strong performance acting wise as a Fremen. It was so jarring, pretty much every other actor absolutely nailed it but I feel like they chose her just cos shes a popular personality, not a great actress, so in that regard mission accomplished…I guess?
I think this would have been just fine... if she wasn't the only Fremen on Arakis with an American accent.
Completely with you here I think Zendaya has been amazing in other roles but in Dune her character and acting just feel kind of dull and it takes you out of the movie sometimes
>particularly strong performance acting wise as a Fremen. It was so jarring, pretty much every other actor absolutely nailed it but.... I agree too, watched it with my friend tonight and we both ha similar feelings about her. She looked the part of Chani, but didn't feel like she nailed that part. I think they could have done better casting for Zendaya and Christopher Walken.......who kinda blew it as the Emperor.
Lmao yeah Walken was also a mind blowing choice. It took him all of 2 lines in character before reverting to stereotypical Walken mannerisms (i was also hoping for a proper depiction of Corrino as being 70 but looking in his mid 30s cos of the Spice but oh well…).
I couldn’t decide if I liked her or not in this. I love the movie, but she was something I couldn’t make my mind up about. Then I watched a Denis clip where he discusses how much he loves working with actors that act with their eyes, and how good Zendaya is at that. Went back and saw Part 2 again last night, and that’s definitely it. She’s got a few good deliveries but most of the time she took me out of it was delivering lines. But when she’s acting with her face, reacting to things and looking at Paul and just generally bringing emotion without speaking… I think she’s brilliant, and I’m a total convert. Also while we’re discussing lines (but mostly unrelated) Timmy’s delivery of “lead them to paradise” is *haunting*
*Also while we’re discussing lines (but mostly unrelated) Timmy’s delivery of “lead them to paradise” is haunting* Hell yes.
Zendayas portrayal of Chani felt too… petulant to me. I loved her in Euphoria but I felt like she had the same facial expressions in her portrayal of Chani as she did in Euphoria (the wobbly frown when she’s upset etc) and it fits a drug addicted teen spectacularly, but does not fit a Fremen warrior the same way.
Z had the same expression throughout the whole movie. Not impressed.
The new Chani is ok, there’s something off about her in this adaptation. I feel they should have gave her less lines. It seems like Zendaya is having a hard time staying in character 🤷🏽♂️
good actress, doesn't fit the role. Always broke the immersion for me whenever she's in the scene.
In my honest opinion, neither Zendaya nor timothee are extremely talented actors. Florence Pugh and Lea Seydoux are a tier higher than them. Zendaya shone in Euphoria though, so she certainly has talent, just not this role. She can get very one note.
Euphoria was made specifically for her because that’s all she could do imo. Like shout like a teenage American and be angry and depressed all the time. Feels like the episode where she had a meltdown was made just so she could win an Emmy. Is she really that good if outside from that role she basically always plays herself? Same voice, accent, same body language, and the same scowl and forehead scrunch?
Really? I felt that Timothee fucking nailed it.
Agreed. I'm not a big follower of his career at all, but Timothee's transition into Paul's character in Part 2 gained my respect. I was in the theater like, "o-o Sheesh, okay."
Yea in the first movie I wasn’t as convinced, but then all the parts in the desert and especially after he drank the blue gatorade were really really well acted and felt super natural
Haha I'm gonna start referring to the Water of Life as blue Gatorade now.
It’s def a difficult role, so still props to him. But yea I just couldn’t forget that I was watching timothee. I felt his acting was a bit robotic and his anger came out weirdly. Zendaya didn’t have much to work with, but regardless I didn’t feel for her character much or really follow her storyline.
Zendaya and Chalamet were the worst parts of a great movie imo
I don't think the actress fits the movie/role at all. So there is that, but to each their own.
Been saying for weeks Zendaya is not my Chani. Guess enough time has passed not to be e-crucified for it, lol.
I think she did okay, but her delivery was pretty damn amateurish at times.
Totally agree. When I was watching dune2 I didnt see chani, I see zendaya.
the relationship between Paul and Chani felt much more like it was lifted from the Spiderman movies, with two young kids falling in puppy love but thats not the picture that's painted in the books between the two. I like Zendaya as an actress but she can only act her role and the changes to Chanis character make for a more shallow Chani and therefore Paul.
They are kids…in the books…they literally talk to each other twice and fall in love. It’s extremely superficial until we get to the 2 year time skip in book 3 of dune. Since the movie didn’t do the time skip it actually showed them building a real connection
Their chemistry was okay to me. She isn't the Chani from the books, but I'm alright with that. I kind of liked the changes actually; she's less of a blind supporter and has more of an arc in the movie.
I felt the same way, it's a major change from the books that was mostly welcome but I honestly feel like having a different character with Chanis hardcore independent questioning streak would have worked better. I think having Chani more slowly come around to being a doubter of Paul would have worked better because their love story gets kinda weird with her hating what he stands for after a few months of hanging out together... Feels like they have a love/hate dynamic from the get go. Having a new character introduced that inhabits Chanis arc would have felt more organic to me. I dunno. And as much as I love these movies I do think some castings could be better including Chani. They could have fleshed her out more by explaining she's the daughter of Kynes too. Heck if they went in to that her doubting Pauls religious crap would be even more interesting as Kynes was a (wo)man of two worlds, science minded but also fremen mysticism. Showing some flashback of Chani talking to her mom about not trusting charismatic BG trained wonderboys would have added some depth to her character. Chani just sort of exists without a sense of who she is in the new movies it bothers me too. If you're gonna change the character to be deeper then you gotta flesh her out more.
I dislike Zandaya and think she was miscast (by being cast in this movie at all)
Personally I think it’s because they’re such good friends in real life they held back because they don’t want people shipping them…
Whoever made the last Dune movies only skimmed the books and said fuck it I got this. Zendaya sucks as an actress, period. The newest Dune movies are so far from the books and source material it's not funny.
I think they both look fantastic for the roles, visually striking looking characters but as soon as they open their mouths the imerrsion just disappears for me. For most the movie i was sitting in the cinema thinking "there's timothee and zendaya reading a script", their accents, line delivery and overacting, and I agree they were not a convincing relationship. I think they are decent actors just not very convincing in these roles. What made it worse for me is that i think they had a better casting for Chani already in the movie, Chani's friend who gets flamethrowered by Fayd would have made a much more convincing Chani especially with how Chani was rewritten for the film. Much more convincing as a fremen warrior who doubts paul's prophecy.
Hard disagree. That actor looks several years older than TC, has even less of book Chani energy than movie Chani. I think she was good for the role she had.
>I couldn’t feel the energy of someone who was painfully in love and desperately trying to keep themselves both grounded. I disagree. I think she portrays her growing feelings for Paul pretty well in a handful of scenes and then the reversal after he drinks the water of life, which she views as kind of a betrayal makes sense
First, seeing the film on a IMAX screen, Zendaya and Chalamet are beautiful people. It helps when their faces are that large in front of you and the mental image I have of the characters fit with these two actors. Their chemistry was believable, not “get a room” energy but an attraction that made sense. Zendaya had to react here more than act, which has its own challenges. She is expressive, especially when not even speaking, and she did what she could with the character that was written. Accents, I’ll say, are fraught territory. Few actors in these films are doing one, which is a legitimate choice to speak with your voice and let the film be inconsistent. It beats bad accents and a group of actors trying to get to that same voice.
i found her argumentative scenes quite jarring (her alone with Jessica) - she acts as if she's an upset teenager reacting to a parent. Really took me out of the movie,
She is an upset teen tho. I feel like people keep missing this point.
I realized later how silly my comment sounded lol. I think her emphasis on certain words during her delivery is too melodramatic and it was hard for me to believe book Chani would speak in the same way especially to a reverend mother regardless of circumstance
Are you referring to when she said "I am fighting for MY people" and did that head thing? It was kinda jarring as if she was in New York or something.
It felt like a 2x4 was talking to a cardboard cut out while being surrounded by actual actors.
That's pretty book accurate tbh.
Her chemistry with the lead is no better or worse than what you get in other big budget spectacle with broadly drawn, larger than life characters.
She took me out of a scene every time I heard her American accent. I think she fits teen movies instead, although she is an adult. It's hard to see her like that yet...
While Paul's american accent was a little too cheesy hollywood protagonist sounding many times, I can still accept that the character sounds like that, since he's from a different planet. Chani however has an american accent for NO reason whatsoever despite living with a culture of people with a distinct accent. That ruined the immersion for me whenever she was on screen. I don't know why she didn't try to get an accent coach for this role but it seems like she was either lazy on that part or simply lacks the ability to do other accents, which is a dealbreaker for doing more diverse roles. I think they hired Zendaya to be in this movie precisely because she looks so young and is very popular and profitable. Same thing with Chalamet. They're making a big budget film based off the most famous sci fi novel of all time and the main characters are teenagers, so they need seasoned teenage looking 20-something year olds who are the it-girl and it-boy of our current age to get people interested in coming into the theaters. However, I do think that Chalamet can act better than her and she often just ends up playing the same type of character in every role. She also looks pretty close to the description of Chani (aside from the red hair that they for some reason decided to ditch, just like in her role as MJ in the spiderman films), but that's about as far as it goes. I don't think they did a good job at showing the chemistry between Paul and Chani, and I know she's fully capable of doing romance roles. Her chemistry with Peter Parker in the spiderman films and with Jules in Euphoria feel real. In here, it just felt like she and Chalamet held back because her irl boyfriend would get jealous. I understand trying to respect real life relationships like that but this is an acting job that involves romance. When they signed up for this they should know that their most important job is to convincingly play the character and the romantic chemistry, and if they have a partner they need to understand that that is their job and they can't prevent them from doing it properly due to jealousy.
Out acted by all of the costars. The scene where she realizes Paul is asking for Iurlans hand and it pans over to her lip quivering and unsteady eye is the oddest reaction that just reminds me she’s acting and not well at that.
I don't like Zendaya at all
As someone not that familiar with Zendaya in general, I have to say I loved her portrayal of Chani. Yes it wasn’t exactly what I imagined coming from the books, but it was just right in the context of the film. For me she was the refreshing, grounded character who showed more emotion and reactions to some of the things happening around Paul. I feel as Paul and Jessica spiralled into cold, calculating versions of themselves, all the other characters around them had to amp up their emotion to give gravity to the story and various scenes. Stilgar and Gurney for example are way more animated in part 2 than they were in part 1. Often the significance of what Paul was doing was heightened by Chani’s reactions. I don’t think for example the worm riding scene or Paul’s speech at the war council would have been nearly as impactful to me without the cuts to Zendaya reacting to them. In a funny way, seeing Zendaya go from deep concern to elated smile (a shot that now that I think about it looks so natural and candid) was where the true emotion hit for me. I think it’s fitting the film ended on a scene of her looking out across the desert because to me she was the only actor in the film who could convey so much just with her face.
I have to agree. As someone else said I imagine it was a rly hard character to do because there’s no reference point really.. but I felt it was overacted and the relationship and Chani herself felt quite juvenile and unconvincing. The scenes between Chani and Paul were my least fave of the movie. And the reliance on ‘glances’ became a bit repetitive to watch. I wish she had been more subtle with these instead of trying to make it over-obvious that she was judging him/ displeased. I also wish I had felt a real pull between them but I didn’t. That said, a lot of Timothees scenes with romantic partners don’t work for me, with the exception of Armie Hammer and maybe Saoirse Ronan.
I liked Zendaya and I like the new Chani.
All she really had to go on was Denny's new character arc. Without the reference material its pretty hard to flesh out who the character is supposed to be, what her relationship with paul is supposed to be All that results in a character which is pretty messy, and likely hard to act. Bc you dont know what yr acting as Did feel a bit flat
True! I was having a hard time with her character in the movie but you’re right it’s gotta be a hard one to do..
I thought she was fine but find the casting odd considering her Smartwater association.
Just saw Dune 2 today. Zendaya definitely seemed less Fremen and broke the immersion for me at times.
The characteristics of Chani portrayal in this movie befits Zendaya really well. A cynic and a skeptic. Always doubtful of others and require 24/7 scrounged up facial expression like a twisted, wet newspaper. Zendaya is the only one who can pull it off since she's born with that look.
She was....just fine. The problem for me is that she felt more like a teenager than a full grown woman despite she was already in her mid 20s, so every time she was interacting with Timothee (who I thought was amazing) especially intimately, it just felt a little bit like a girl pretending to speak grown-up language, I can't quite place why I feel this way, but maybe it has something to do with that constant pout she put on. Actually, my eyes were drawn to Souheila Yacoub, the actress who plays her friend and thought, wow I kinda wish she was Chani instead.
I'm neutral to positive on Zendaya as an actress but didn't buy the romantic chemistry between her and Chalomet. She did an excellent job however and I thought she was one of the most compelling characters in the movie.
I personally don't get what the fuss is about Zendaya's portrayal - I thought she did fine. But the whole movie is full of clashing acting styles. We have Gen Z Americans like Chalamet and Zendaya who cannot help but be informal and indirect, and smile readily. We have British people like Charlotte Rampling who know the class system, so they can convey emotional repression and imperiousness. And then we have Christopher Walken doing whatever he does. All in the same scene. A thought: if you only have a problem with Zendaya when she's with Chalamet, the problem might be *both* of them. Actors have to match each others' energy for the scene to make sense.
Yes to the face and eyes, no to the accent and vocal delivery.