Kadeem Hardison on Working with Zendaya on "Euphoria"

[JamesG]

Inside Zendaya’s Disney Reunion on "Euphoria" with Kadeem Hardison: “She’s a Little Less Goofy”
by David Canfield
May 5, 2026


It's exciting seeing you and Zendaya back together onscreen. How did you get involved?

Z and I go back to "K.C. Undercover", and when we both left there, we were eager to see if we could really act — like, let’s get off a Disney show and get some meat and see if we can still chew.

She went to "Euphoria" and I went to "Teenage Bounty Hunters" or something like that. She invited me to the premiere, and I remember being wildly uncomfortable watching that as an adult with all these kids. I was like, “Oh my God, is this what happens with the kids now? Is that what the kids are going through? This is crazy!” It introduced me to a world I had no idea existed.

I met Sam [Levinson], visited the set and we had a couple of dinners. He was probably interested in figuring out if we could do something and then boom, next thing you know it happened. I got a call last year, “Hey, come on in and read for you Euphoria.” I was like, “What?”





So you’d been keeping in touch with Zendaya, and she’s the one who introduced you to Sam and all that?

Oh yeah. She had a little Christmas dinner or Thanksgiving dinner and she said, “Come on by.” And she was like, “You’ve got to meet.”





Did they present the role to you specifically, or how did you then get cast?

Straight audition, not even like “we’ve been thinking about” or anything. Just like a regular audition: Here’s an appointment, here’s the time. I read the sides. I got an idea of what they wanted me to do, prepared, went in — and it was a live audition, which I hadn’t had in, Jesus, in years.

Casting director in a room, the old school way. Maybe three weeks later they called and said, “We’ve just got to clear it with HBO and clear it with this one and clear it with that one.” It was one read and locked up.





What excited you most about the job?

When I was a kid, we were the first people in our building to have HBO. It was one of my early babysitters from the time I was 12 or 13 years old, and I always wanted to be on HBO — and time was ticking (Laughs). I was like, “Damn, I don’t know if I’m ever being on an HBO show.” So this was a no-brainer, especially if I was going to get a chance to be in scenes with Z. From the sides I was like, “Well, I’m hoping this is her that I’m talking to.”

I was into it. I didn’t know if this guy was going to live or die. He’s in a dangerous little thing here. He doesn’t seem like the nicest guy that ended up doing nice things. So I’m absolutely 100 percent in.





You’ve had such a long career and have been on so many shows. That’s wild that this is your first HBO role.

Netflix, Amazon, all of them — I’ve been around on the block, and never HBO. And HBO was when it all started for me, literally when I was 12, it was my babysitter.





So you worked with Zendaya a decade ago. What do you remember about her then and how did that compare with seeing her in action here?

For lack of a better phrase, she’s still the same guy. She’s always been that person and she’s always been a boss. I was really impressed with how much of a boss she was when I met her when she was 16 or 17. I was impressed that she was the executive producer on the show we were doing then — and so, to turn around and find out she’s still operating in that capacity and just kind of expanded it to films and everything else? Yeah.

She’s a little less goofy — a little less goofy. As a kid, she was pretty goofy and we would kid each other a lot and now she’s matured a little bit. But she has her goofy side. I call her my little big sister — the more mature one between the two of us, but I’m the older one.





It's a much more dramatically intense role, obviously. She’s really great just in this past episode, which you have a lot to do with her in.

She shocks me every time. I knew she was good when we were doing K.C., but I didn’t know she had that kind of depth to go to — and she didn’t know I had it either. It was like, “****, I’ve got to catch up because she’s running away with it.”

She’s really one of my favorite actors to watch, especially since I know her and know that she’s not really Rue and she wasn’t really K.C. Her instincts are top-notch.

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