Zendaya has revealed she went on a Twilight marathon to prepare for working with Robert Pattinson, and the man himself only found out about it on the way to their film’s red carpet premiere.
The pair star together in The Drama, the new dark comedy following an engaged couple whose wedding week unravels after one of them drops a major secret.
Ahead of filming, Zendaya realised she had somehow never seen any of the Twilight films despite being exactly the right age to have been swept up in the craze, and decided it was time to remedy that before working with Edward Cullen himself.
“I was like, ‘How have I never seen these movies before?'” she told The Hollywood Reporter at the film’s Los Angeles premiere on Tuesday.
“But I felt like I had to, it’s like a cultural kind of phenomenon that I hadn’t been a part of yet. I watched all of them in like a day. It was great, I enjoyed myself.”
Pattinson, standing nearby, had absolutely no idea she had done this until moments before the red carpet.
“It’s interesting, [she’s like] ‘Just got to see what he’s about,'” he joked. He had a slight forwn, but putting her achievement at all five films in two days rather than one, “that’s impressive,” he said either way.
“It was so fun, I love working with her. I think she’s great and I’d do it again and again.”
Zendaya was equally enthusiastic about the film itself, describing the characters and their situation as genuinely unlike anything audiences will have seen in a rom-com before.
“These characters are unique. They’re very unique people and the circumstance is quite unique and it reveals a lot about love, about what we’re willing to do for love, what we’re willing to accept, and how much you really know your partner,” she said.
The Drama opens in cinemas on 3 April.
