Zendaya and Robert Pattinson on Marriage and Secrets

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The stars of the new film, “The Drama,” debate the pros and cons of dredging up the past.
For this episode of “Modern Love,” I went to Los Angeles to ask Mr. Pattinson and Zendaya these questions. (Zendaya wore a white dress, of course.) And while both actors are famously private about their lives, the way they understood their characters gave me a glimpse into their own perspectives and personalities.

Together, they have a chummy and sweetly conspiratorial dynamic. They’ve got a playful debate going about how much you need to know before committing to someone.

Mr. Pattinson came down on the side of less is more: “I think if you’re expecting chaos and surprises, you’ll probably be happier in the long run,” he said. “I think you kind of suffocate a relationship if you’re saying, I need to know everything about your past. The past has nothing to do with you.”

Zendaya was ready with her rebuttal: “I feel like I’m biased because I’ve been able to grow up with the person that I love and get to know them, through being literally a teenager to now,” she told me. “But in life, naturally, we’re going to grow and we’re going to change no matter what. So it’s good to know someone, at least at the core, so that as they grow and as they change, you can be a part of that in some way. It’s like, you know where we’re coming from.”

Their film, and our conversation, made me think about the things I’d chosen not to share with partners, and wonder about what they might have kept from me. What were we afraid to say? What could have been if we’d been truly honest with each other