2024 was quite a year for Zendaya. Between Dune: Part 2 and Challengers, she cemented her status as one of the biggest young stars in Hollywood. While it’s easy to imagine that making Dune was a challenge (the movie was shot in the desert, after all), Zendaya said that one of the biggest challenges came from her costume.
During a recent interview with W Magazine, the actress admitted that she suffered a heat stroke while on set in Jordan. “I had such a fear of peeing myself or shitting myself, honestly, in the suit on set,” she explained.
“We were in Jordan. It was very hot, and I remember thinking, ‘Oh, man, the bathrooms are so far away,’ because we had to hike to the locations,” Zendaya said. “If you have to pee, you need at least 10 minutes to get out of the costumes. I was like, ‘D–n, I don’t want to drink too much water.’ I had such a fear of peeing myself or shitting myself, honestly, in the suit on set. One day, I didn’t drink enough and I had a heatstroke. I felt so barfy. I remember calling my mom on the bathroom floor, saying, ‘I feel terrible.’ She was like, ‘Did you drink water today?’ I said no. I thought I was being smart, but you can’t do that. So, lesson learned.”
Zendaya wears a Fremen stillsuit for much of the film, a full-body garment that, in the universe of Dune, recycles your waste so that you can stay hydrated in the desert. As it turns out, though, the costume she was wearing couldn’t do the same thing.
