Rue Bennett

Ruby "Rue" Bennett is the main protagonist of the HBO TV series, . She is a seventeen-year-old girl struggling with drug addiction and her identity. She often latches onto other people as a way to feel complete.
She is portrayed by , who also portrayed as Rocky Blue in Shake It Up, Halley Brandon in Frenemies, Zoey Stevens in Zapped, K.C. Cooper in K.C. Undercover, Michelle "MJ" Jones-Watson from Marvel Cinematic Universe, Chani Kynes in Dune and voiced Meechee in Smallfoot.
==Appearance==
Rue is a skinny, biracial (her mother is black and her father was white) girl with a brownish-beige skin color. Sometimes, she applies eye make-up such as glitter or eyeliner. She has dark brown coily hair and dark eyes. Her outfits, in contrast with Jules', are very mute and rarely change. She most often wears her fathers hoodie or some other baggy hoodie/shirt, and shorts or loose fitting pants. Her footwear is usually converse or other sneakers.
==Personality==
Rue is sarcastic and introverted. Her battles with mental illness and drug addiction often times highlight the more negative aspects of her personality, such as when she's rude. She is also bipolar. That being said, Rue is far from being anti-social. She is able to get along with many people, and has several acquaintances. Rue has had a complicated relationship with her sexuality, struggling with compulsory heterosexuality. She experienced uncomfortable sexual situations with boys when she was younger (such as being "emotionally coerced" in to a blowjob) before realizing that she is a lesbian.
But despite her distant and apathetic front, she is shown to be very empathetic and caring for those around her. This is brought out especially in her relationships with her little sister, her mother, close friends and Jules, where she often puts herself in complex or dangerous situations to look out for. Following her relapse, Rue slowly realized how destructive she was, both to herself and her own family. When Leslie practically said that she would be willing to save Gia's life if it meant losing Rue's life, Rue was not angry at her mother but was okay with it, showing that she had finally stopped caring about her own life to the detriment of others. Following the performance of Our Life, Rue finally understood how much her life sucked, how much she had hurt everyone in her path. Since then, she has taken charge of her life, setting the goal of staying clean for good and moving forward, no matter how hard it will be for her and of course to make peace with her family and her friends.
== Biography ==
Rue was born on September 12, 2001, and has been diagnosed with several disorders such as OCD, ADD, generalized anxiety disorder, and possibly bipolar disorder, making her childhood quite difficult as she somehow realized something was wrong with her. In 2005, Rue had a little sister, Gia, and the two had a good relationship for years. Then aged 11, Rue had a panic attack which led him to the hospital and being administered liquid Valium, exposing her to drug addiction for the first time. Things took a bad turn when Rue and Gia's father, Robert, died. Rue had started taking Oxycontin before that to get high with her father, making her addiction worse after his death, distancing herself from her group of friends and also starting to drink alcohol in addition to taking drugs, causing her to completely become a drug addict. Her addiction would ultimately lead her to a near-fatal overdose, with her little sister finding her inert in time. Rue then spent part of the summer in a rehab center.
Season 1, As soon as she returns from rehab, Rue doesn't waste her time diving back into her bad habits, although in smaller doses for the moment. She subsequently meets Jules Vaughn, a trans girl who recently moved to town and the two quickly form a relationship. Things quickly become tense between Rue and her mother Leslie since her return, Leslie no longer trusting Rue and becoming suspicious each time her eldest daughter comes home late to the point of demanding that she take a drug test. Despite her past bad experiences, Rue makes relatively no effort to stay clean, but things take a turn for the worse when she and Jules decide to run away from town together following their romantic relationship, only for Jules to back out. Saddened and heartbroken, Rue relapses.
Specials, Rue tries to recover from the end of her relationship with Jules over Christmas and gets advice from Ali regarding her addiction, exposing her non-existent drive to stay clean and encouraging her to improve. Rue tries to recover from the end of her relationship with Jules over Christmas and gets advice from Ali regarding her addiction, exposing her non-existent desire to stay clean and encouraging her to improve herself while having to find the courage to forgive for her mistakes.
Season 2, Rue remains addicted to drugs and to make matters worse, participates in drug trafficking with Fez and Ash. On New Year's Eve while drunk, she reconnects with Jules, confessing to her about her relapse after their separation, resulting in both girls confessing their romantic feeling to each other and kissing. Becoming increasingly concerned about Rue's worsening drug addiction, Jules reveals to Leslie her daughter's relapse, leading them to get rid of the suitcase of drugs that Rue obtained from Laurie. 
When she can no longer find the suitcase, Rue speaks slowly in a spiral and begins to attack Gia, whom she accuses of having denounced her. Gia, terrified by her older sister's hostility, Leslie intervenes but things turn horribly. Rue is cruel to her mother, claiming that her father would have found her pitiful, then becomes devastating as soon as Leslie reveals Jules' involvement. Rue comes to ruin the house and be so horrible to her family that Leslie denounces her as a bad person and proceeds to slap her before ejecting her from Gia's room. Rue, however, becomes more enraged and kicks down Gia's bedroom door, screaming even louder at her mother and sister before collapsing in tears after overturning her bed. While crying, she admits that she wants to get clean but that she can't, just as she feels very guilty for what she has just done but starts obsessing over the briefcase again and Jules reveals that she dumped the contents in the toilet. Leslie begins to criticize her for breaking down emotionally without realizing that Jules has just heard everything, to which Rue rejects her. Rue then violently collapses against Jules for denouncing her and breaks her ties with her.
Despite her violent burnout, Rue wants to be taken to the rehab center but on the road, her anxiety takes over and she panics in front of her mother and sister before running away from the car and wandering around the city. She arrives at Lexi's house and tries to find something to snort, only for her friends and mother to gather in the living room for her intervention. After trying to make her mother understand that she is incapable of getting clean again, Rue distracts everyone's attention by revealing Cassie and Nate's relationship, allowing her to run away again. Wandering all night, breaking into houses and eventually running away from the cops, Rue gives up and returns home.
As the days pass, Rue tries as best she can not to plunge again but it is very painful for her. Although her mother and sister no longer blame her much, Leslie ends up admitting to her how much of a burden she is and that she is almost destroying Gia's life with her behavior, even admitting that she would not hesitate to save Gia over Rue if she had to, to which Rue noticeably agrees. Finally, Rue decides once and for all to take control of herself, having seen Lexi's play, Our Life, based on the real lives of the high school students, made her understand the horrible person she was for a long time. She begins by reconciling with Lexi, Elliot then with Jules who continues to recognize her feelings for her. Beginning to rebuild her life, already vowing to stay clean, Rue becomes optimistic about the future.
== Quotes ==
== Trivia ==
* Zendaya described her experience playing Rue as particularly intense and painful, the role having taken her out of her comfort zone since she was practically considered a Disney Kid due to her much more family-friendly Disney roles.
* Just like her actress, Rue is biracial, but the main difference is that the skin color is individually reversed in their respective parents.
* Rue is also the narrator of the series.
* Zendaya won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Rue Bennett.
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