Zendaya Calls Tom Holland 'Best Friend' in Elle, Nolan Calls Her a 'True Movie Star'
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- Zendaya called Tom Holland her 'best friend' and 'the person that I love' in Elle, describing their 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' set as 'like coming home' because 'we bring our dogs to work; it's like a family affair.'
- Zendaya declined to confirm marriage rumors with Holland, telling Elle writer Alexis Okeowo: 'No, I'm not going to do that.'
- Zendaya said she watched Holland work from the sidelines on Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey' since they didn't share scenes, recalling: 'I could have cried, I was so proud.'
- Zendaya described juggling night shoots on 'Euphoria' season 3 while learning her Chakobsa lines for 'Dune' and memorizing her 'Odyssey' lines for a quick turnaround trip to Iceland — and admitted she did mess up a line on set once.
- Christopher Nolan praised Zendaya as 'a true movie star, but also an incredible actor' with 'true grace and poise,' saying he cast her as goddess Athena because 'it's a tall order' she could meet.
- Matt Damon revealed he and Tom Holland were jealous that Nolan — 'known for being very circumspect' — gave Zendaya a rare 'perfect' on a take, while the typically praised leads only ever got 'good,' and they 'bitched about it for the entire rest of the film.'
- Zendaya said her family tracks her hectic travel schedule through phone location sharing, noting 'she's not responding because she's in Budapest' has become shorthand for her constant time-zone-hopping work.
Why it matters: Zendaya's Elle profile functions as a soft-pedal confirmation of her relationship with Holland while sidestepping the marriage question entirely, and Nolan's rare on-the-record 'perfect' — relayed by Damon — is the kind of co-star anecdote that moves award-season and prestige-press conversations. For Zendaya specifically, back-to-back Nolan and Spider-Man roles in the same year as 'Euphoria' season 3 cement her as one of the most over-scheduled actors in the industry, with the Iceland/Iceland ranch/Budapest timeline underscoring how stretched her slate actually is.
