Do the kids still use this expression? If not, the teacher’s pet is the teacher’s favourite, a label assigned to one student by the other students who believe that the teacher’s pet can do no wrong in the teacher’s eyes. Back in my day, we’d talk derisively about a teacher’s pet – they were suckups, their hand-to-air movement was terrifyingly fast, teacher’s pets weren’t usually popular among the student body – but that was a long time ago, times change, the younger generations evolve, sometimes they wisen. And right now there’s a teacher’s pet movie star who couldn’t be further from the way teacher’s pets were perceived in the past.
Her name is Zendaya, and Matt Damon revealed recently that she is the teacher’s pet, with lighthearted resentment but mostly admiration, the way the rest of the culture admires her. So much so that the teacher in this situation is doubling down on crowning her with this title.
Zendaya, Matt, Anne Hathaway, and Tom Holland are in the final days of their promotional push for The Odyssey. More and more of their junket interviews are now being released, including a clip of the first family of Ithaca (Annie, Matt, and Tom) with Christopher Nolan talking about Zendaya. This is a follow-up to Matt’s quotes in Zendaya’s recent ELLE cover story.
“Chris is known for being very circumspect. So when you do a take, it’s not like he says, ‘That was great.’ He’ll go, ‘Yep, good. Okay.’ And that is the equivalent of the greatest praise you could ever get,” Damon says. “Zendaya, on the other hand—there were takes where she did one thing, she did this amazing scene, and he said, ‘Cut.’ And then he went, ‘Perfect.’ And literally, Tom [Holland] and I were obsessed with this. She got a ‘perfect’? I’ve never even gotten a ‘great.’ She got a ‘perfect’? He and I bitched about it for the entire rest of the film. ‘Did you get anything today?’ ‘No, I got a “good”—moving on.’ ‘Yeah, me too.’
“So it was this amazing ability she had to come in and really put herself in there and blow everybody away, and then just go back to shooting Euphoria,” Damon continues. “Look, you forget, she and Tom are very young actors and very accomplished for how young they are, but they’re still in their 20s.” (And by the way, he adds: “I absolutely adore her and Tom together, and they deserve each other—they’re the two loveliest people.”)
That was in print, so it was a good idea to get the response on camera, credit to the producer and the host for going there in the interview, and getting Chris Nolan to say to Matt and Tom’s faces that, yes, Zendaya is favoured.
@rottentomatoes “She was always perfect.” Christopher Nolan praises Zendaya’s flawless performance as Athena in #TheOdyssey. Click our link in bio to watch or listen to @Fandango’s Big Ticket interview. #christophernolan #zendaya #movietok #filmtok ♬ original sound – Rotten Tomatoes
“She was ALWAYS perfect.” Matt and Tom are playing it up there, no doubt, but this is also true to Matt over the years, when he’s worked with talented people and he compliments them with competition. That said, Nolan is probably playing it up here too… but that doesn’t mean it’s insincere. After all, he absolutely understands his place in the industry and the fact that his name is as big of a theatrical draw as the stars he directs. And even he’s out here in these streets proclaiming himself a Z stan.
As mentioned last week, the review embargo for The Odyssey doesn’t lift until Wednesday but I’ve already said it’s my favourite Nolan film and I’ll add here that while Zendaya doesn’t have as much screen time as Matt, Anne, and Tom, the core family of the film, there is a gut-punch scene in which she plays a pivotal part. And she is, indeed, perfect in it.
Here she is in New York today continuing the press tour with yet another excellent outfit. The dress is Alberta Ferretti from 2008, a throwback to the 2000s, with a footwear change – which, by the way, is pretty rare for her. She’s not wearing the Louboutin So Kate, her signature shoe, but instead adhering to the style vibe from the aughts with the knee-high gladiators that were so annoyingly everywhere at the time. One of the few people, in my opinion, who could pull it off without an eyeroll. Also LOOOOVE the way she’s styled her hair here, the Greco-Roman men’s hair trend from 2000 years ago.
Zendaya steps out in NYC, July 13, 2026
Zendaya steps out in NYC, July 13, 2026
Photo credits: Elder Ordonez/INSTARimages, Backgrid
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