Zendaya Explains How She Got the Invitation for 'The Odyssey' Cast

In an interview on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Zendaya talked about how she landed her role in The Odyssey, and what it was like to get the news alongside Tom Holland. 

"Tom got the call," the actress began, explaining that Christopher Nolan's first contact was with Holland. "I was so excited, I didn’t even put myself in the equation at any point," the actress said, explaining that she is a huge Nolan fan and was excited for her husband. 

"You know, we’d already won, you know? So he got the script, and I took a little peek," the actress joked. "I had to know! There was a Christopher Nolan script in my house! What was I supposed to do?", Zendaya continued. 

She then explained that after another meeting, Holland came home and she got the news. "He went to the meeting and I asked, 'Okay, tell me everything,'" then he handed her the script and said, "Read it again." She found Holland’s reaction odd, explaining that she had already read the script the day before. 

Still, Holland insisted. "Read it again, now with Athena in your mind," the actress said she was in disbelief. "Hey, stop it right now! I freaked out, I was so grateful, and he was the one who got to tell me... it was really special," the actress concluded. 

Everything we know about The Odyssey

The film is yet another adaptation of Homer's classic heroic poem, a continuation of the Iliad that tells the story of Odysseus (Ulysses in some translations), trying for 10 years to return home to Ithaca after victory in the Trojan War. Enraged, the god of the sea, Poseidon, does everything he can to keep him from returning to his wife, Penelope.

Matt Damon will play Odysseus. According to the Greek press, where much of the film was shot, Anne Hathaway will play the character’s wife, Penelope. Meanwhile, Tom Holland will play Telemachus, the son of Ulysses, with Zendaya playing the goddess Athena, Charlize Theron as Circe, Benny Safdie as Agamemnon, and Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra — or Klytemnestra — Agamemnon’s wife. 

The cast also includes even more stars: Robert Pattinson, Jon Bernthal, Mia Goth, John Leguizamo and many other names. Longtime Nolan collaborators are also back, such as composer Ludwig Göransson (TENET and Oppenheimer) and cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema, who has shot Nolan’s films since Interstellar.