They’ve been good friends ever since they began working on the first blockbuster Dune film in 2019.
And so it seemed ‘weird as hell’ to Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya when they finally had to kiss in front of the camera for highly anticipated Dune: Part Two, which hits theaters on March 1.
The 28-year-old Call Me By Your Name star and the 27-year-old Euphoria actress spoke with Entertainment Tonight about the awkwardness of playing romantic leads when they were already good ‘platonic’ friends.
The costars, who were in Mexico City on Monday to promote their upcoming science fiction epic, also had to contend with the added complications of having other romantic partners, as Zendaya is current dating Spider-Man star Tom Holland, while Timothée has lately been romancing Kylie Jenner.
‘It’s definitely strange,’ Zendaya said of their on-screen kissing. ‘I think both of us are just like, “All right. This is our job. OK, we’re going to do this.”‘
Timothée Chalamet, 28, admitted to ET that it was ‘weird as hell’ to kiss his ‘platonic’ friend Zendaya, 27, in Dune: Part Two; seen together in April 2023 in Las Vegas
He stars in the film as Paul Atreides, the heir to the now-decimated House Atreides, who becomes a messianic figure to Chani (Zendaya), a member of the Fremen tribe on the desert world Arakis; still from Dune: Part Two
Timothée went further, calling the intimate display ‘weird as hell’ because the two are ‘so close, platonically.’
‘In the scope of the movie, it’s totally what is happening, but I also feel like we are so tight now that it really is just like another day at work,’ he added.
The Little Women actor joked, ‘I don’t know what that says about the nature of our jobs, but it’s just another day of work.’
He stars in the film as Paul Atreides, the heir to the now-decimated House Atreides, who has been abandoned with his mother on the desert world of Arakis while the members of House Harkonnen who are responsible for his family’s slaughter take over the planet’s lucrative natural resources.
Zendaya was introduced briefly in the first film as Chani, a member of the desert-dwelling Fremen tribe who will teach Paul how to survive in the punishing environment so that he can lead her people to rise up against the galactic forces colonizing their planet.
Zendaya credited the film’s director and co-writer Denis Villeneuve for helping them navigate the difficult terrain and balancing their more intimate scenes with the grand sweep of the Dune’s plot, rather than simply tacking on a love story.
‘In this specific love story, I think we’re so grateful to have Denis at the helm of this very special thing,’ she said. ‘He always found a way to somehow — amongst all of the epicness that is the Dune universe — find a way to carve out a very sentimental, beautiful love story that is, I feel, in many respects, earned.’
Timothée has explored various kinds of romances in the Oscar-winning Call Me By Your Name, as well as other acclaimed films including Lady Bird, Little Women and Bones And All, while Zendaya has explored a hyper-stylized version of high school dating on her hit HBO show Euphoria, but their characters’ romance in Dune had little precedent in their previous projects.
‘It was definitely something we were trying to understand, because you can’t be like, “What’s up, shawty?”‘ she joked about Dune’s futuristic setting and unconventional social relations.
‘You see, throughout the film, the moments between them. The things that are unsaid,’ Zendaya said of their characters’ budding romance. ‘The glances between characters — there’s so much said just with looks. I think it happens with all the characters, and specifically Paul and Chani.’
