Zendaya's Stunts On "Euphoria" Are Wild — But Does She Have a Stunt Double?

The Feb. 6 episode of "Euphoria," "Stand Still Like the Hummingbird," is one we won't stop thinking about for a while — if ever. While the second season has spent a lot of time on other characters, this episode comes back to main character Rue (Zendaya). Rue's substance abuse has caught up with her yet again, finding the teen careening both physically and mentally all over the place. Running into traffic, banging down people's doors, stealing from her friends, and screaming at her family are just tidbits of what happens to her over the course of the episode — and Zendaya handled a lot of it on her own.

While on a rampage to avoid going to rehab, Rue literally runs into traffic to escape her mother. She ends up at Lexi (Maude Apatow) and Cassie's (Sydney Sweeney) house, where her mother finds her. The rescue is short-lived, however, and Rue ends up back on the street. While running from the cops, Rue jumps fences, climbs over cars, and throws herself every which way to escape. The sequence was so action-packed that fans compared it to parkour. Now, some are wondering how many of the episode's stunts were done by Zendaya herself.

Zendaya told "Entertainment Weekly" that this episode was particularly grueling for her. "It was a very tough day," she said. "I mean, I beat myself up. I still have some scars on my legs and got quite a few bruises. . . . It was so intense and scary to tackle, and obviously something that would be incredibly emotionally taxing, but also physically taxing." She refers to the episode as the "Rue-run episode."

While Zendaya apparently did at least some of the episode's stunts and physical activities, it's possible she had help from a stunt performer. Mallory Thompson is listed as Zendaya's stunt double for two season-one episodes and as a stunt performer for the Feb. 6 episode. Thompson is widely believed to have assisted with the pilot episode's montage of Zendaya crashing her bike.

Still, because the physical sequences in the Feb. 6 episode weren't over-the-top difficult, we can believe that Zendaya might have done most of the work herself. Either way, one thing's for sure: whoever was responsible for pulling off those stunts did a killer job.