Zendaya on Tom Holland Audition and Public Interest in Their Romance

Zendaya recently appeared on The New York Times’ “Modern Love” podcast alongside her “The Drama” co-star Robert Pattinson and spoke about her relationship with Tom Holland. There’s been heightened attention around the two A-list stars ever since Zendaya’s stylist, Law Roach, claimed on the red carpet at the Actor Awards in March that their “wedding has already happened.” Neither star is confirming their nuptials, but Zendaya did speak lovingly on the podcast about how she knows Holland is the perfect partner.

“I knew this is my person because I don’t feel nervous around them,” she said. “I feel really peaceful, and I feel really calm like, oh, I actually feel more nervous when I’m away from you than when I’m with you.”

Zendaya said she “first met” Holland at an audition, “so I was pretty nervous anyway, but he did make me feel calm… Just by being a nice person, you know? By making me feel comfortable. I mean, it’s like having to do a chemistry read for a big movie like that. It’s like, oh, you really want the job, and all these kind of things. And yeah, he was really lovely then.”

The audition was for 2017’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” in which Holland headlined his first Marvel tentpole as Peter Parker/Spider Man and Zendaya debuted as the franchise’s MJ. The two would reprise their roles in 2019’s “Spider-Man: Far From Home” and 2021’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” This summer, they star together in “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey.”

“I feel like I’m biased because I’ve been able to grow up with the person that I love and get to know them through being literally a teenager to now,” Zendaya said of working with and knowing Holland for nearly a decade. “So it’s like, of course we’re going to change and we’re going to grow and life is like whatever, but I still feel like there’s a bond or a connection that you feel like you know someone, at least enough to feel safe with them.”

Roach’s wedding reveal in March prompted a tidal wave of attention on Zendaya and Holland. AI photos depicting their alleged wedding even went viral across social media, which Zendaya later had to confirm were not real.

“There is a level of a parasocial investment in my personal relationship, which I understand, and I am aware that I’m a public person, and so is he, and I’m also aware that we’ve grown up in front of people, and we’ve done movies where we fall in love with each other,” Zendaya said about public interest in her romance with Holland. “I really do understand that, and I don’t want to dismiss that like ‘stay out of my business’ but in a lot of ways, I also am a very private person, and I try my best to be able to have things for myself and for him as well.”

She continued, “We do our best in general to not hide ourselves from the world, but just to, I think, preserve things for ourselves so that we can maintain that joy just within ourselves and our loved ones and our family. So that’s kind of like my broad way of just saying, I hear it, but I also like my own little boundaries of what I like to bring up and talk about, but then also what I’m also willing to share.”

Listen to Zendaya and Pattinson’s full interview on the “Modern Love” podcast here.