Zendaya Reveals She Suffered Heatstroke Making ‘Dune: Part Two’

Zendaya learned the hard way that self care, despite a hectic schedule and working conditions, is paramount. The Euphoria star revealed in a new interview with W Magazine that she suffered a heatstroke on the set of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two as she didn’t hydrate enough with water while on set in the Jordan desert set. 

“I had such a fear of peeing myself or shitting myself, honestly, in the suit on set,” she explained, noting the costume she wore of body armor worn by the Fremen warriors in the movie to help them survive the similar weather conditions.

“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,” she said. “If you have to pee, you need at least 10 minutes to get out of the costumes. I was like, ‘Damn, 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.”

Luckily, there was no longtime damage and it only happened once. She survived the rest in her costume because she was in the best shape of her life having recently wrapped production on Challengers. In the film, she stars as a tennis player. 

“What was so great is I had been training with the boys on ‘Challengers’ every day and was in the best shape that I had been in a really long time,” Zendaya said. “For ‘Dune,’ the costumes were very heavy and restrictive. The first few weeks, your body’s quite sore. When I was walking through the sand every day, my butt looked great. So that worked out! I was prepared.”