Zendaya And Timothee Chalamet Talk Dune Dance Parties, And Apparently Javier Bardem Was Involved

Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya in Dune

Making a movie is a challenging endeavor, especially one that’s a blockbuster spectacle. So obviously all involved with that process need to have a strong work ethic to improve the odds of churning out a quality product. However, that doesn’t mean some fun can’t also be had along the way. For instance, during the filming of Dune, Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya blew off some steam with dance parties, and costar Javier Bardem even took part at one point.

With Dune having completed principal photography in summer 2019, Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya recently had a virtual reunion when the former interviewed the latter for Elle. Here’s what they had to say about their Dune dance parties:

Timothee Chalamet: What was your favorite thing we did on break from shooting?Zendaya: I guess it was the dance parties that I hosted in my room.Chalamet: There was a super legit fucking wrap party at the end there. We were with some of the cast, and then Javier [Bardem] came in and we were all dancing.Zendaya: Javier popped in, yeah.

Hey, if dance parties helped the Dune actors relax after shooting scenes, then I’m glad they were able to blow off stream that way. More importantly, is there photographic evidence or video footage of Javier Bardem attending one of these parties? Quite possibly, in fact, as Timothee Chalamet quickly followed by asking Zendaya if she had Polaroids of that moment. As the old saying goes, pics or it didn’t happen.

While Zendaya once described her role in Dune as a “small part,” she and Timothee Chalamet nonetheless ended up spending a fair amount of time together since Zendaya plays Chani, the Fremen love interest to Chalamet’s Paul Atreides, the main protagonist. As a result, the two actors became close, and assuming that Warner Bros pushes forward with Dune 2, i.e. the movie adapting the second half of Frank Herbert’s novel, then you can count on them sharing a lot more scenes.

Javier Bardem was thrown into the Dune mix as Stilgar, leader of the Fremen tribe that Chani hails from on Arrakis. Bardem, Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya’s cast-mates include Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Jason Momoa and Charlotte Rampling, among others. This Dune movie looks to be a faithful adaptation of the first half of the sci-fi classic published in 1965, although naturally there will be some creative liberties taken.

In case you didn’t see it when it was first released, watch the Dune teaser trailer below.

Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villenueve is helming Dune, with the filmmaker having long wanted to put his own spin on the story. Villenueve also worked on the screenplay with Jon Spaihts and Eric Roth. In addition to Dune 2, there’s also a prequel series in development for HBO Max called Dune: The Sisterhood, which will spotlight the Bene Gesserit.

Dune was originally supposed to come out next month, but because of the current health crisis, it’s been delayed to October 1, 2021. Find out what other movies are supposed to arrive next year with our 2021 release schedule.

Adam Holmes
Senior Content Producer

Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.