“Spider-Man” producer Amy Pascal confessed that she and Kevin Feige were unaware of Zendaya when she auditioned for the role of MJ in the Tom Holland iteration of the films.
Pascal shared this in a feature for Vogue published in Tuesday's issue that includes the actress, who has shifted from the press tour for “Dune: Part Two” to promote her upcoming film “Challengers” directed by Luca Guadagnino. “To be honest with you, neither Kevin Feige nor I knew who she was,” Pascal said. “She was wearing no makeup and she was just dressed like a regular girl, and we were like, ‘Oh my God, she’s amazing. She
is going to be in the movie.’ And then we found out she was a totally famous person and felt really stupid.” has Zendaya has acted alongside her boyfriend of a few years, Holland, who plays the current Marvel Cinematic Universe web-slinger in three films: “Spider-Man: Homecoming” (2017), “Spider-Man: Far From Home” (2019) and “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (2021).
The actress and model also discussed being apprehensive about her leading role in “Challengers,” Tashi Duncan, as it’s different from her usual high school-aged roles, as seen in “Euphoria,” “K.C. Undercover” and more.
“I’m always in a high school somewhere,” Zendaya noted. “Mind you, I never went to high school. I hope people see me as my own age, or maybe a little bit older, because I have friends that have kids, or are having kids.”
The actress also hinted about her tennis training with costars Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist for the film.
“The first little while was getting the basics, trying to just hit the f–king thing,” she said. “One day, you’d be like, ‘Oh, s–t, I cracked it. I figured it out. I got it.’”
The familiarity went back and forth much like a volley, and she mentioned Venus and Serena Williams as well as Roger Federer as athletes she related to for portraying a tennis athlete. She also received advice from Coco Gauff’s coach Brad Gilbert.
“Challengers” will be released in theaters on April 26.
“To be honest with you, neither Kevin Feige nor I knew who she was… then we found out she was a totally famous person and felt really stupid,” producer Amy Pascal admits
