Crews 
Zendaya has been one of Hollywood’s leading ladies and rightfully so she was crowned Complex magazine’s “Woman of the Year” for their December/January issue and she is opening up about her family roots, dropping out the highly scrutinized Aaliyah biopic and more.
Get into some of the hot snaps and excerpts from her interview and spread below.
On Dropping out of Lifetime’s Aaliyah biopic
“things started falling apart.”
“I just didn’t like the way things were going down. There were a lot of things that came to my attention that I didn’t know about, about the family and production value. “ She continues, “I just thought that it was being rushed. I thought that there was nobody who really knew her on that project at all—literally no one. I can only know so much about someone from watching their interviews. I don’t know what she was like in her kitchen talking to her mom. That would be rude of me to try to figure that out without knowing…. I just felt that it was inappropriate, so I didn’t want to do it,” she said. After the terrible reviews of the biopic by critics and fans alike, looks like Z made the right choice!
On her biracial roots
“You get the best and the worst of both worlds,” she said. “I know there were a lot of times when you try to figure out where you fit in….But to literally be two races, it’s really hard to see color because I’m the gray area. I had to learn about both sides of myself and be really proud of and educated in both. I think that’s why I’m comfortable with myself and can speak on certain issues because I’ve taken the time, or my parents have taken the time, to teach me who I am.”
On Miley Cyrus and other “Disney” and “Nickelodeon” teen stars who strayed from their safe brands
“A lot of them were forced into being role models and they had to pretend to be something that they didn’t feel matched up with who they were.”
“And that’s because they started really, really young. So you’ve got to realize when you’re really young you don’t know who you are yet. And as soon as you figure it out, you’ve already been forced to become something that you didn’t really know you signed up for.”
“Everyone has their different ways of learning and growing and finding out who they are, and you can’t fault people for that. Again, I think with all the prior Disney stars, at least you can say they are themselves now.”
“In order to avoid those problems just be yourself from the beginning and be honest with the world, because that’s the only thing you can do. There will be no surprises… I’m not suddenly going to be like woo, crazy.”
On standing up for herself when Giuliana Rancic made racially insensitive comments about the actress’ dreadlocks when she attended last year’s Oscars.
“All my brothers and my Dad at one point had dreadlocks. My little nieces have curly hair…and if they were to have someone say something demeaning about what they have and what they hold dear to them, then I would want them to at least have the pride within themselves to come up with a response that made sense and that they were proud of.”
Check out more from the interview over at Complex by clicking HERE.
