When 19-year-old Zendaya Coleman walked into her screen test for Spider-Man: Homecoming back in March 2016 with no make-up on, producers had no idea who she was before they cast her as awkward and intellectual teen Michelle Jones-Watson aka MJ.
‘To be honest with you, neither Kevin Feige nor I knew who she was,’ Amy Pascal admitted to Vogue on Tuesday.
‘She was wearing no make-up and she was just dressed like a regular girl, and we were like, “Oh my God, she’s amazing. She has to be in the movie.” And then we found out she was a totally famous person, and felt really stupid.’
Spider-Man: Homecoming went on to amass $880.2M at the global box office upon its 2017 release followed by Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), which earned a total $3.054B.
In 2016, the 27-year-old former child star – who had already dropped her self-titled debut album – was starring in Corinne Marshall’s spy comedy K.C. Undercover, which aired for three seasons spanning 2015-2018 on the Disney Channel.
When 19-year-old Zendaya Coleman walked into her screen test for Spider-Man: Homecoming back in March 2016 with no make-up on, producers had no idea who she was before they cast her as awkward and intellectual teen Michelle Jones-Watson aka MJ
Amy Pascal (pictured Saturday) admitted to Vogue on Tuesday: ‘To be honest with you, neither Kevin Feige nor I knew who she was’
Three years earlier, Zendaya and her dance partner Valentin Chmerkovskiy were runners-up in the 16th season of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, which was won by country crooner Kellie Pickler.
The two-time Emmy winner – who was ‘the breadwinner of my family’ – famously got her big break alongside Bella Thorne starring in Chris Thompson’s dance sitcom Shake It Up, which aired for three seasons spanning 2010-2013 on the Disney Channel.
And while Homecoming was technically Zendaya’s feature film debut, she had already starred in Disney Channel movies Frenemies (2012) and Zapped (2014) as well as a voiceover gig in Super Buddies (2013).
The Dune: Part Two action star’s boyfriend Tom Holland was cast as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in June 2015, and she watched his entire life change.
‘We were both very, very young, but my career was already kind of going, and his changed overnight,’ Zendaya said in her Vogue cover story.
‘One day you’re a kid and you’re at the pub with your friends, and then the next day you’re Spider-Man. I definitely watched his life kind of change in front of him. But he handled it really beautifully.’
The Oakland-born biracial beauty and the 27-year-old Englishman were rumored to be a couple as far back as 2017, but they finally confirmed the romance in 2021 with a long kiss in his $125K Audi sports car outside her mother’s Silver Lake home.
Last November, Tom announced at a Critics Choice Association press conference that he won’t make a fourth Spider-Man movie unless it’s ‘worth the while of the character.’
The 66-year-old producer added: ‘She was wearing no make-up and she was just dressed like a regular girl, and we were like, “Oh my God, she’s amazing. She has to be in the movie.” And then we found out she was a totally famous person, and felt really stupid’
Spider-Man: Homecoming went on to amass $880.2M at the global box office upon its 2017 release followed by Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), which earned a total $3.054B
In 2016, the 27-year-old former child star – who had already dropped her self-titled debut album – was starring in Corinne Marshall’s spy comedy K.C. Undercover, which aired for three seasons spanning 2015-2018 on the Disney Channel
Three years earlier, Zendaya and her dance partner Valentin Chmerkovskiy (L) were runners-up in the 16th season of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, which was won by Kellie Pickler
The two-time Emmy winner – who was ‘the breadwinner of my family’ – famously got her big break alongside Bella Thorne (L) starring in Chris Thompson’s dance sitcom Shake It Up, which aired for three seasons spanning 2010-2013 on the Disney Channel
And while Homecoming was technically Zendaya’s feature film debut, she had already starred in Disney Channel movies Frenemies (2012) and Zapped (2014) as well as a voiceover gig in Super Buddies (2013)
The Dune: Part Two action star’s boyfriend Tom Holland (L, pictured in 2021) was cast as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in June 2015, and she watched his entire life change
Zendaya said in her Vogue cover story: ‘We were both very, very young, but my career was already kind of going, and his changed overnight. One day you’re a kid and you’re at the pub with your friends, and then the next day you’re Spider-Man. I definitely watched his life kind of change in front of him. But he handled it really beautifully’
Last November, the 27-year-old Englishman (pictured March 28) announced at a Critics Choice Association press conference that he won’t make a fourth Spider-Man movie unless it’s ‘worth the while of the character’
The Oakland-born biracial beauty will next executive produce and star as tennis prodigy-turned-coach Tashi Duncan in Luca Guadagnino’s sporty rom-com Challengers – hitting US/UK theaters April 26 – alongside Mike Faist (L) and Josh O’Connor (R)
‘But that said, if we can figure that out, I would be a fool not to put the suit back on again because I owe everything to Spider-Man,’ Holland said – according to Collider.
‘I love the character and the people I get to work with. So, I would love to tell another story, but I’ll only tell it if we can find the right one.’
Meanwhile, Max will reportedly ‘come up with a solid plan to begin filming the delayed third season of Euphoria on October 1’ while creator Sam Levinson works on scripts for the critically-acclaimed teen drama produced and starring Zendaya – according to Variety.
But first, audiences can catch the homeschooled triple-threat as tennis prodigy-turned-coach Tashi Duncan in Luca Guadagnino’s sporty rom-com Challengers – hitting US/UK theaters April 26 – alongside Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist.
