Stepping onto a Christopher Nolan set for the first time would rattle almost anyone, and Zendaya is no exception. In a new interview with Collider promoting The Odyssey, the actress admitted that her opening day on the production left her nervous.
Tom Holland, her real-life partner and co-star in the movie, was luckily on set to help her ease through her anxiety. She shared, “It’s crazy. I think probably even just my first day on set. I didn’t really know what to expect, and I’m very grateful that Tom came in on his day off because I was so nervous. You can only imagine.”
Zendaya explained that reading a script leaves you guessing at how everything will look, but arriving on set replaced all of that speculation with something real. There was so much attention to detail, and nothing was left to her imagination because it was all there in front of her. She further confessed that getting to do that alongside people she had admired for years carried “definitely a sense of anxiety.”
| The Odyssey (2026) | Details |
| Directed & Written By | Christopher Nolan |
| Based on | Odyssey by Homer |
| Cast | Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Zendaya, and Charlize Theron |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release Date | July 17, 2026 |
In the film, Zendaya plays Athena, the goddess of wisdom and warfare, who guides Matt Damon’s Odysseus on his long journey home from the Trojan War. Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s epic also stars Tom Holland as Telemachus, Anne Hathaway as Penelope, and an ensemble including Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlize Theron, and John Leguizamo.
The Odyssey opens in theaters and IMAX on July 17, 2026, from Universal Pictures, following its world premiere in London on July 6.
Zendaya Came to the Set After an Overnight Euphoria Shoot
Zendaya revealed part of the reason why she didn’t have time to spiral before that daunting first day. She shared that she came to Christopher Nolan‘s set straight from another set. She shared that she was grateful since the tight turnaround left no room to panic. And her survival strategy was to compartmentalize as much as she could. She shared during the Collider interview:
I was kind of grateful that the day before I was shooting, I was literally on Euphoria doing a night shoot. I didn’t have enough time at that moment to freak too hard until I was there. So I was like, ‘Let me just compartmentalize,’ as much as I could. I was grateful that I didn’t freak out just yet, so I could try to sleep.
That back-to-back scheduling captures just how relentless Zendaya’s 2026 has been, with the actress filming Euphoria Season 3 and The Odyssey in overlapping windows. Besides these projects, she also had a busy year, starring alongside Robert Pattinson in A24’s The Drama and appearing in the upcoming Marvel movie, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, with Tom Holland. In other words, Zendaya’s 2026 movie slate is stacked, to say the least.
She is also ending the year with her role as Chani in Dune: Part Three alongside Timothée Chalamet. So, while her panic mode sets in from time to time on such big projects, she has very little time on hand to worry about it.
Zendaya’s Challenging Experience of Filming on IMAX Camera
For Zendaya, the biggest source of on-set pressure was Christopher Nolan’s filmmaking process, especially the filming with an IMAX camera. She shared that the use of this camera made each take precious. She shared with Collider, “You’re like, ‘I don’t want to waste any bit of this.’ Like, ‘Let me not be the reason that this take doesn’t work out.'”
Unlike a digital camera, where you can keep rolling almost endlessly, shooting on physical IMAX stock is finite. Zendaya called it “definitely intimidating.” She even shared one moment where she was mortified when she messed up a take. She shared, “I remember I flubbed a line once, and I was mortified because I was like, ‘This is IMAX!'”
Her co-star John Leguizamo also admitted to getting the nerves while filming on IMAX, noting that the format forced him to adjust his acting. Those nerves make more sense given what Nolan was attempting. The Odyssey is the first feature film shot entirely on IMAX film cameras. While he shot many sequences of Oppenheimer in IMAX, this movie uses a new 30% quieter camera system from the company, allowing the entire movie to be shot without camera noise.
What do you think of Zendaya’s comments on working in a Nolan movie? Let us know in the comments below!
The Odyssey arrives in theaters worldwide on July 17, 2026.
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