Zendaya was drawn into Spider-Man’s web long before she ever met Tom Holland.
The “Euphoria” star met her boyfriend while filming “Spider-Man: Homecoming” in 2016 — but revealed the web-slinger has played a role in her romantic life before while accepting CinemaCon’s Star of the Year Award on Thursday.
“Literally my first date was when I was 15 years old and it was to go see ‘Spider-Man’ in 3D,” she said. “And now I consider myself honored to be able to buy a ticket and sneak into the back of one of your theaters, which I’ve done many times before, and watch my own.”
The screening in question was presumably for “The Amazing Spider-Man” (2012), which served as the first reboot of the franchise before Marvel replaced Andrew Garfield with Holland. Zendaya starred as his love interest in the three most recent entries.
The Emmy-winning actor, who recently delivered a surprise performance at Coachella, went on to thank attending movie theater owners at CinemaCon for delivering her films “to people they need to get to” — and gushed about the importance of theaters.
Zendaya added that movie theaters let people “escape” to “build a new dream,” which she has not only “been witness” to — but “experienced it myself.” She also admitted that it was a “magical feeling” to see people watch her movies on the big screen.
“It’s been so special because I get to watch what the moviegoing experience does for people,” she said during her speech at the annual convention in Las Vegas. “It’s healing and it’s magical and I feel so grateful to be a part of it. So, thank you.”
Thursday marked her second appearance onstage at CinemaCon. Zendaya joined fellow “Dune” star Timothée Chalamet and director Denis Villeneuve on Wednesday to debut a first look at the sequel — before fulfilling a lifelong dream nearby.
“When I tell you we barely had a voice by the end of this,” she reportedly captioned an Instagram Story showing her and Holland singing along at Usher’s residency in the Dolby Live theater. “Childhood dreams come true, going to an @usher concert.”