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Do the kids still use this expression? If not, the teacher\u2019s pet is the teacher\u2019s favourite, a label assigned to one student by the other students who believe that the teacher\u2019s pet can do no wrong in the teacher\u2019s eyes. Back in my day, we\u2019d talk derisively about a teacher\u2019s pet \u2013 they were suckups, their hand-to-air movement was terrifyingly fast, teacher\u2019s pets weren\u2019t usually popular among the student body \u2013 but that was a long time ago, times change, the younger generations evolve, sometimes they wisen. And right now there\u2019s a teacher\u2019s pet movie star who couldn\u2019t be further from the way teacher\u2019s pets were perceived in the past.<\/p>\n
Her name is Zendaya, and Matt Damon revealed recently that she is the teacher\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s quotes in Zendaya\u2019s recent ELLE cover story<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cChris is known for being very circumspect. So when you do a take, it\u2019s not like he says, \u2018That was great.\u2019 He\u2019ll go, \u2018Yep, good. Okay.\u2019 And that is the equivalent of the greatest praise you could ever get,\u201d Damon says. \u201cZendaya, on the other hand\u2014there were takes where she did one thing, she did this amazing scene, and he said, \u2018Cut.\u2019 And then he went, \u2018Perfect.\u2019 And literally, Tom [Holland] and I were obsessed with this. She got a \u2018perfect\u2019? I\u2019ve never even gotten a \u2018great.\u2019 She got a \u2018perfect\u2019? He and I bitched about it for the entire rest of the film. \u2018Did you get anything today?\u2019 \u2018No, I got a \u201cgood\u201d\u2014moving on.\u2019 \u2018Yeah, me too.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cSo 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\u00a0Euphoria,\u201d Damon continues. \u201cLook, you forget, she and Tom are very young actors and very accomplished for how young they are, but they\u2019re still in their 20s.\u201d (And by the way, he adds: \u201cI absolutely adore her and Tom together, and they deserve each other\u2014they\u2019re the two loveliest people.\u201d)<\/p>\n 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\u2019s faces that, yes, Zendaya is favoured.<\/p>\n @rottentomatoes<\/a> \u201cShe was always perfect.\u201d Christopher Nolan praises Zendaya\u2019s flawless performance as Athena in #TheOdyssey<\/a>. Click our link in bio to watch or listen to @Fandango’s Big Ticket interview. #christophernolan<\/a> #zendaya<\/a> #movietok<\/a> #filmtok<\/a> \u266c original sound – Rotten Tomatoes<\/a> <\/p>\n \u201cShe was ALWAYS perfect.\u201d Matt and Tom are playing it up there, no doubt, but this is also true to Matt over the years, when he\u2019s worked with talented people and he compliments them with competition. That said, Nolan is probably playing it up here too\u2026 but that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s 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\u2019s out here in these streets proclaiming himself a Z stan.<\/p>\n