Zendaya shows off her emotional range in the artsy black and white trailer for Malcolm & Marie

Zendaya flexes her acting chops in the new trailer for her upcoming Netflix drama Malcolm & Marie, which dropped on Friday.

The black and white film was shot in quarantine and sees the 24-year-old star step into one of her most mature roles to date and she rises to the occasion with aplomb.

John David Washington and Zendaya, who play Malcolm and Marie respectively, are electric in the nearly three minute long preview capturing the emotional roller coaster of love. 

‘You are by far the most excruciating, difficult, stubbornly obnoxious woman I’ve ever met in my entire live,’ Washington’s Malcolm says as he enters a bedroom at the start of the trailer. ‘I f**king love you!’ 

Shot during the COVID-19 pandemic, the film features just two characters who, based on the preview, expertly shoulder the enormous weight of carrying the entire movie. 

The story follows a filmmaker and his girlfriend who get home after a movie premiere and find themselves going down the rabbit hole of their past relationships. 

When viewers first see the ethereal yet slightly edgy Marie, she compliments her beau with a smile before quipping that he is sometimes ‘an emotional f**king terrorist’.

The 24-year-old teamed up with her Euphoria creator Sam Levinson who wrote and directed the art house film that is billed as ‘not a love story’ but a ‘story of love.’ 

‘I love the way you see the world, Marie,’ Malcolm says in an affection voice over the belies the angst and resentment that seems to be running through their relationship.

The film was shot over the course of 14 days and 14 nights in covers one evening the couple’s life at home.

Arriving home from the movie premiere, Washington is dapper in a tuxedo while Zendaya serves up a hefty dose of style in a jaw-dropping halterneck gown with a midriff exposing cut out.  

‘The unknown is what supports the tension of a relationship,’ Zendaya’s Marie says off camera.

Extreme closeups, quick edits and creative expressions of light and focus pepper the preview, giving viewers a hint to the type of cerebral approach Levinson took to tell this story. 

‘You know what Malcolm? I feel like once you know someone’s there for you and once you know they love you, you never actually think of them again,’ Zendaya says. ‘It’s not until you’re about to lose someone that you finally pay attention.’

Out of her gown and underwear clad, Marie emotionally breaks down in front of the camera. 

Zendaya’s gravitas and maturity is felt during some of her sadder or angrier moments as Marie. It’s easy to forget watching the trailer that she is most well-known for playing teenagers. 

‘You want control because you can’t imagine the reason I’m with you is because I love you. Everything that you’ve been through … everything,’ Malcolm tells Marie. ‘That’s what made you you. The girl I love, the girl I f**k with. 

Zendaya ended the trailer saying: ‘Look at me, I’m the last person standing. Hold on to me for dear life.’ 

Malcolm & Marie was shot in quarantine lockdown and picked up by Netflix in a huge $30 million deal in back in September. 

‘We made a bubble. We all quarantined and stayed in this very small area in the middle of nowhere. We shot in this house… we weren’t allowed to leave or go anywhere,’ she previously revealed to Pharell Williams on his new podcast OTHERTone.

‘I’m doing my own hair and makeup in the bathroom and brought a lot of my clothes to help with set [decoration],’ she added.

She said the idea for the movie was birthed through, ‘quarantine conversations that Sam and I had, wanting to create something and wanting to do it safely.’

‘I really wanted to be creative and I hadn’t worked in a long time, through that year anyway,’ she said, adding she didn’t really do much acting throughout the year.

He suggested that they could simply shoot a film in her home, though she admitted, ‘it turned into something more special than that.’

Malcolm & Marie debuts on Netflix January 22.