Zendaya is happy to get into the nitty gritty with her Dune: Part Two character, Chani.
The actress, along with Florence Pugh, Austin Butler, and Timothée Chalamet spoke with Shadow and Act Managing Editor Trey Mangum about getting to know her character much more the second time around.
“For me, I was very lucky to even be there,” she said. “I was shooting the finale of Euphoria at the same time…I jumped on a plane, went and did Dune [Part One] for a week, and went back.”
“…I didn’t have much time with her as a character or much time to build with her or to talk to [director] Denis [Villeneuve] about it. They had already been shooting for months before and there was already a clear machine that was running already and I just wanted to hopefully catch up,” she continued. “I didn’t get to spend much time with her or know who she was other than what I new from the books.”
Zendaya said that Villeneuve’s take on the character gave her much more to work with as an actor.
“What I appreciate about Denis and his approach to the character…is to have much stronger convictions and to allow for the love story to be a little bit more complicated and painful for her to accept,” she said. “Just being able to…figure out her physicality and figure out her fears and also simultaneously also see how she’s overcoming those fears in love but still absolutely guarded and terrified…was fun. I’m appreciative to Denis for giving me something to dig my teeth into.”
Watch the interviews with the rest of the cast above. Dune: Part Two is now in theaters.