Despite coming a long way since her first acting days, Zendaya is revealing that she's not ashamed of her past, and is thankful for where she got her start!

Now setting records of being the youngest actress to win an Emmy for a lead role, Zendaya reflects on where she's come from. 

Zendaya reflects on her Disney star past

Appearing for Variety's Actors on Actors, Zendaya is opening up to Carey Mulligan about her past and is reflecting on how far she's come as an actress.

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After Zendaya won an Emmy award for her outstanding performance in Euphoria, making her the youngest female actress to do so, Mulligan commented that she "surely can't think of [herself] as a Disney kid."

Zendaya responded saying that she in fact does and that she's proud to be one.

"The thing is I am," she said. "And to a degree, I am grateful for that. That's where I started, and I learned so much from that experience."

"It's just kind of been this slow progression, and I am happy that it's all been to prove it to myself and not to anybody else, you know?" she added. "I embrace it a little bit. It's part of my heritage to a degree."

Zendaya did reveal that she herself was shocked when she was asked to have a role in Euphoria after her Disney show success, Shake It Up, ended. 

"He must have seen something in me," she said of the producer. "He said that I was on a mood board for Rue. And I was like, 'No, you didn't!' I think there's something to that kind of faith, and already seeing something in me that I maybe knew was there, but I didn't ever have the opportunity to explore."

Still, Zendaya says that she was nervous about the role and was apprehensive about how far she could take her career. 

"I've always felt that I could bring things to the table," she said. "I could be creative and free to try things and put out bad ideas. Because of the Disney kid thing, I get scared of that kind of thing."