Unpacking Zendaya In ‘The Drama’ & The Film’s Discourse

This is true. School shooters in the United States are overwhelmingly, almost exclusively, white and male. And the reasons for this are rooted in very serious sociopolitical, patriarchal, and culturally specific issues — ones that I understand may seem like they are being dismissed with this storyline. But the fact of this plot is that Emma didn’t actually do it. It’s also true that Borgli initially wrote Emma as white in his script but as soon as Zendaya was cast, the character and the entire movie changed. For better mostly, and also, considering the discourse, for worse. But I don’t think Zendaya or anyone involved in making this film is naive to the implications that came with her casting. The idea that a biracial Gen Z girl disconnected from her Blackness in a predominantly white town in America grows up being bullied to the point that she becomes radicalized by the internet and unsavory “aesthetics” to try to belong isn’t far-fetched to me. The reality of the United States’ gun violence and mass shooting crisis and subsequent refusal to enact legislation to stop these tragedies isn’t inherently funny at all, but it is absurd. And it deserves to be ruthlessly ridiculed and used as fair game for satire. Isn’t that better than pretending the issue doesn’t exist at all? That might sound insensitive coming from a Norwegian director (who has his own inexcusably sketchy past) and me, a Canadian, but the film does treat Emma’s reveal seriously.