A few short years ago, Zendaya starred in a hit movie with another former child star in Zac Efron along with a-lister Hugh Jackman—both of whom know a thing or two about filming stunts for movies. The Greatest Showman had catchy tunes and a heavy-hitting cast, but it also required Zendaya to learn how to use the trapeze for some pivotal scenes. It was Hugh Jackman that helped her through the ordeal and you can tell she's still a little starstruck about the encouragement she got from the multi-faceted actor.
Zendaya’s been open in the past about how Hugh Jackman helped her to overcome her fear of heights while filming trapeze sequences for the movie. She says she got some words of encouragement from the veteran actor which have stuck with her to this day:
He called me a badass. Yeah, Logan called me a badass. Wolverine called me a badass.
Still, Zendaya is quick to point out in a Q&A with Vogue that filming emotional scenes can often be more difficult than doing stunt work in films like Spider-Man: Far From Home or Greatest Showman. Yet she did say the trapeze was intimidating, not only because of her fear of heights but also because she’s not a highly athletic person to begin with. It wouldn't have been possible without Hugh Jackman helping her through and calling her a "badass." She also noted:
Honestly Euphoria [is harder] because I feel sometimes the emotional stuff is almost as hard as the physical stuff, ya know? Trapeze was pretty tough, especially for someone like me who doesn’t work out. It was tough.
The hard work paid off in spades for both her HBO series and The Greatest Showman. In the latter, a scene with Zendaya’s character Anne Wheeler and Zac Efron’s character Phillip Carlyle on the trapeze became a key marketing focus for the movie, as well as one of its most memorable sequences, although Zendaya is also admitting they slammed into one another “a lot,” with the actress noting, ‘Let’s just say we got very close’ of her scenes with Efron.
Yet the end result is still a very pretty and memorable version of “Rewrite The Stars” and a sing-along version is available courtesy of Fox Family Entertainment and features the scene in which Anne smacks straight into Phillip Carlyle.
Next up, Zendaya will be seen in Dune, another movie with big action set pieces, which we’ve finally seen first-look images from. In addition, she’ll reprise her role of MJ in the third Spider-Man movie from Sony. There has been some talk of a possible Greatest Showman sequel, but given where the movie ended, those haven’t panned out so far.
