Zendaya for W Magazine
Jack Davison
Ethereal and gorgeous as she is, you might think Zendaya never has an awkward moment. But think again. The actress, singer and dancer revealed to W Magazine in an interview published Thursday (March 3) that her audition for Dune with Timothée Chalamet was less than ideal as she’d just gotten her wisdom teeth taken out.
“My biggest fear was that my mouth would be vile, and then I would have to do a scene with Timothée where we have to be really close, and he would smell my dry socket breath,” she confessed to the magazine.
With a dreamy photoshoot overseen by Dune director Denis Villeneuve and inspired by David Bowie‘s The Man Who Fell to Earth, Zendaya became the fourth cover star in W‘s Directors Issue. Haim sister Alana was also part of the issue’s quartet of muses, posing in a shoot directed by her Licorice Pizza director Paul Thomas Anderson. It doubled as an opportunity for Haim to release music, with Alana and the other two thirds of her indie rock sister group creating and releasing the “Lost Track” song and video — also directed by Anderson — specifically for the magazine.
Also speaking about her love for acting in the cover story, Zendaya said her profession enables her to do something she struggles with outside of work — relinquish control. “As a Virgo, I hate not being in control of things, and spontaneity is difficult for me in real life,” she said. “It’s funny, because that’s why I love acting so much. It’s the one space in which I can feel safe being spontaneous, because I’m not myself; I’m someone else. There are no consequences.”
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W’s new profile comes at a career high point for Zendaya, who recently starred in Spider-Man: No Way Home — aka the third biggest box office success ever — and wowed audiences with her show-stopping performance in season two of Euphoria, which concluded Feb. 27. The Sam Levinson-created HBO series let the 25-year-old actress flex her music muscles as well as her acting skills, with the show’s resident composer Labrinth collaborating on several songs with her — including one so good, Kid Cudi wanted to be on its remix.
See photos from Zendaya’s David Bowie-inspired photo shoot with W Magazine below:
