Zendaya was only onscreen for a few minutes during the first Dune movie, but she has a much more prominent role in Dune: Part Two — and with that comes a pretty significant costume change. During the film, her character Chani wears a stillsuit, the desert gear worn by the people of Arrakis to help keep their body moisture in and a water supply close at hand. According to the actor, it's a great idea in theory, but in practice it was a lot less comfortable.
In a new interview with the BBC, Zendaya compares the suit to breaking in a Dr. Martens boot and shares some of the less-comfortable moments wearing it during a day on set. She calls it “great to look at,” but less practical for daily wear. “If it worked, if it really could recycle your water and keep you cool, we'd love that,” the actor explains. “It doesn't do that. It's a little constricting, it keeps the heat in … that's not great.”
When you get a new suit, you have to break it in given the stiff fabrication, and both Zendaya and her costar Florence Pugh say it's like breaking in a new pair of shoes. “When you get a new one … your shoulders hurt, everything's being squeezed in,” Zendaya shares. “It's like a Doc Marten, it's like a boot.” Pugh agreed, saying, “You're covered in blisters the first day.” Sounds … comfortable? (The brand itself cheekily chimed into the convo, commenting, “My Desert. My Arrakis. My Doc's [sic].”)
In 2022, Dune's costume designers explained the ins and outs of the stillsuit, which filters your sweat and urine and turns it into water for those hot desert treks. “We melded together different kinds of netting, cotton, microfibers, wicking fabrics, and silk,” costume designer Jacqueline West told Vanity Fair. “You could imagine that all of the tubing would go through the different layers and cool the body.” It may not have been the most fun thing to wear, but as Zendaya says, “It looks great, and that's what matters.”
