Zendaya jokingly threatened to “leave” her husband, Tom Holland, if he declined to star in The Odyssey.
The 30-year-old actor did “a lot of thinking” after director Sir Christopher Nolan approached him to play Telemachus, the son of Odysseus (Matt Damon) and Penelope (Anne Hathaway), in the adaptation of Homer’s ancient Greek epic.
Speaking alongside Christopher and Matt, both 55, and Anne, 43, Tom, 30, told the new issue of People magazine: “To be honest, when I got home after our meeting, I sat down with Z and was like, ‘I’ve been offered this movie.’
“And she was like, ‘By who?’ And I was like, ‘It’s the big one.’ And she was like, ‘Chris?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s Chris Nolan.'”
Tom was concerned about scheduling conflicts between The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
But 29-year-old Zendaya — who plays ancient Greek goddess Athena in The Odyssey, and MJ in Spider-Man: Brand New Day — encouraged him to accept Christopher’s offer.
Tom added: “And then we had Spider-Man that was literally scheduled to go the same day that we would start shooting. Z said, ‘I’ll leave you if you don’t do The Odyssey.'”
Following laughter from Matt, Anne, and Christopher, the latter quipped: “Yes. Well, thank you to her.”
Tom added: “Here I am.”
For a long time, Christopher has wanted to work with Tom — who asked Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group chairman-and-CEO Tom Rothman, 71, to delay production of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, in which the star plays the Marvel comic book superhero, so he could make The Odyssey.
Christopher explained: “Tom was somebody I hadn’t worked with before, but I’ve admired his work for years and really wanted to work with him, and so we met, and I convinced him to do it.”
He added: “It wasn’t easy jamming in between a lot of different things. He’s a very busy young man, but this family came together and obviously Anne, this is the third time we’ve worked together, and I’m just thrilled that these guys all agreed to come on board.”
Christopher continued: “I like to say it was a hard shoot, but hard in the right way. They rose to it magnificently.”
Earlier this month, Zendaya said being cast with Tom in The Odyssey was “the dream”.
She told Extra: “I remember when he got the call, I was, like, absolutely over the moon, so excited, so proud.
“And then never did it… cross my mind that a second call would be coming to our home, you know? So, that was so special.
“And yeah, just to be able to share something like that and watch him work in this context… It’s the dream… It’s absolutely the dream. So, I was happy.”
In another interview, Zendaya revealed she was “already on Cloud Nine” for her husband when he got the call.
She told the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast: “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.”
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