What’s next for Pedro Almodóvar after winning his first Golden Lion? Perhaps something very, very different.
“I’m fascinated by the stylist who looks after Zendaya [Law Roach],” “The Room Next Door” director Almodóvar told Vanity Fair Spain in an interview published in his native Spanish (we used the built-in Google Translate tool for this story).
“I think his work is an act of enormous creation. It’s about fashion, frivolity, and social issues, and it’s about promotion,” he continued. “But above all, I think it takes talent for that. I’ve asked about this guy, and I’ve been told that he’s almost as much of a diva as she is. I’d love to make a film about them, a cross between ’All About Eve’ and ’The Devil Wears Prada.’”
What makes the relationship between Roach and Zendaya so unique is that, unlike most stylists, he only caters to her. Roach formally announced his retirement in 2023 via Instagram in a post that read, “If this business was just about clothes I would do it for the rest of my life but unfortunately it’s not! The politics, the lies and false narratives finally got me! You win…I’m out.”
Roach has also spoken out against fashion houses that he claims refuse to dress Zendaya. For Almodóvar, how his outspokenness might affect their relationship is what draws him to their narrative.
“Those people make for great comedy. I imagine them all with their fluidity, competing,” Almodóvar said. “There would be a character who would be like the ultimate authority on fashion, and then a stylist who would want to get that position in the world of celebrities, looking for them, and talking to fashion houses, and trying on clothes all the time. If you are a screenwriter and you come up with an idea like that, I would love to develop it.”
The 75-year-old “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” and “All About My Mother” filmmaker knows he is very much Zendaya and Roach’s senior, but Almodóvar says his recent work has connected with a young crowd.
“When I publish a script or a book, more than 50% of the people who come to the presentations are 20 years old or even younger. I suppose they watch my films on the platforms. But when it comes to meeting up for lunch, dinner, or going to my chalet to take a bath, I don’t see many very young people; that generation that I think is going to be marked by Los Javis [Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo], who made ‘Veneno,’” Almodóvar said. “By the way, I do have a relationship with many transsexuals: with the young ones, with the intermediate ones, and with the historical ones. I socialize with them. Also with actors from the series ’Las noches de Tefía.’ But those people are on a very, very specific side of life that doesn’t represent all youth. I don’t have networks, so I don’t know about TikTok people or influencers. And I think I would like to.”
