Zendaya is opening up about her first day on set of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.
In a recent appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the actress said she could not even open her mouth to speak her first lines of dialogue while filming in freezing conditions in Iceland. Zendaya, who plays Athena in the film, said that didn’t help ease her nerves over appearing in her first Nolan project.
“I had my lines and I wanted to have them so down. I psyched myself out a little bit,” Zendaya said. “It was particularly cold. It was in Iceland. My mouth was just frozen. There is nothing coming out.”
The actress continued, saying, “My mouth would not move. Literally. It came out like, ‘Blah blah blah.’ So embarrassing.”
She went on to say that showing up “was such a pleasure and a gift to be able to share scenes with people you admire.”
“Part of you has to compartmentalize to a degree. Lock in, we’re working. But I was so moved and excited to be there and wanted to do my best work,” Zendaya said.
The Odyssey has a star-studded cast that also includes Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Lupita Nyong’o, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron and Jon Bernthal. It opens in movie theaters on July 17.
The film, of course, is an adaptation of Homer’s epic poem. It tells the story of Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, and his 10-year journey of returning home to his wife, Penelope, after the Trojan War.
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