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While filming the pandemic-era Netflix drama, the powerhouse actor, Zendaya, made a bold call that helped crew members walk away with serious coin. Thanks to her push for a profit-sharing model, some walked off set with an extra $300,000 in their pockets.
Yep, Zendaya made sure her team ate. She worked with Euphoria creator Sam Levinson and co-star John David Washington to shoot the movie in secret during COVID lockdowns. The setup was simple—one location, two actors, one long night of raw, relationship-fueled dialogue. Shot entirely in black and white, Malcolm & Marie leaned all the way into intimacy. But behind that stripped-down aesthetic was a bold, experimental production model—and Zendaya helped build it.
The Dune actress revealed during an HFPA panel for the Golden Globes that she advocated for a points-based pay structure so crew could benefit directly when the movie sold. “We got to create this financial structure where all of our crew members also got points on it, so when it sold, they made money as well, so hopefully that will be a system that can continue,” she explained. “I think it’s important that we take care of our people.”
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The project sold to Netflix for a whopping $30 million, per Variety. And according to Today, “Typically one point equals 1%.” Which meant even one single point netted a crew member around $300,000 from that deal. Many likely had more than one.
Zendaya didn’t just talk the talk. She backed up her words with action. “It just felt like the right thing to do,” she added. “These are the people that are laying all the tracks and were with us through the whole thing—and literally putting their blood, sweat, and tears into it.”
And she wasn’t exaggerating. The production followed strict COVID protocols, involved a skeleton crew, and was shot in just two weeks. In a moment where Hollywood was mostly frozen, Malcolm & Marie kept people employed—and then paid them like power players.
As for the movie itself, it dropped on Netflix to big buzz but mixed reactions. Critics weren’t exactly swooning. One sharp take from Vulture’s Angelica Jade Bastién read, “At one point, during one of Malcolm’s endless protestations about the state of modern filmmaking, he declares, ‘Cinema doesn’t need to have a f*cking message. It needs to have a heart and electricity.’ It’s a shame the creators behind Malcolm & Marie didn’t realize the film has neither.”
Despite early Oscar chatter, the movie walked away without any nominations. But what Zendaya pulled off behind the scenes? That changed the game. She took her star power and turned it into equity—for everyone who made the vision happen.
No spotlight. No speeches. Just one hell of a quiet, million-dollar move.
For more such stories, check out Hollywood News.
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