Zendaya may play the all-knowing goddess Athena in Christopher Nolan’s epic adaptation of The Odyssey, but the actress was not nearly so omniscient about her casting in the film. In fact, she didn’t even know she was up for it.
Turns out, it was her husband who told her.
“I was already excited,” she said on the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast, because husband Tom Holland had landed a major role in the film. “I was already on Cloud Nine for him.”
Zendaya continued, “And then he came home and said, ‘I need you to read something.’ And I was like, ‘Is it that thing we were just reading the other night?’ And he was like [nods head], ‘But now read it thinking of this character [Athena].’ And I was like, ‘Shut up! You’re joking!’ It was pretty cool.
Holland gave Access Hollywood his side of the story. He also related what it was like to get to tell his wife she was up for the role.
“It was such a gift because I know how much she’s admired Chris. Interstellar is her favorite movie,” he said. “I could never express to Chris how grateful I am to be able to give her that information.”
The actor, who plays Odysseus’ son Telemachus, then revealed that he and Zendaya had read the script together the night before his meeting, which he then realized was likely a violation of the famously-secretive director’s protocol.
“At my meeting with Chris he asked me a question. He said, ‘Would you be offended if I asked Zendaya to play Athena?’ I was like, ‘Why would I be offended?’ And then I asked him, ‘Do you want me to tell her.’ And he said, ‘Yeah.’”
“And I went home and I said, ‘You should read the script again.’ And she said, i already read it. And I said, ‘Just read it again, but read Athena really closely.’ And the little corners of her mouth [makes a smile on his own face]. It was amazing.”
