Following years of conjecture, Zendaya and Tom Holland finally confirmed their relationship in July with an in-person kiss. Even though fans called it months ago, the pair has kept infamously silent. Apart from the sporadic Instagram birthday tributes. In a recent interview, Zendaya expressed her admiration for the Spider-Man actor for the first time.

“Obviously, there are a lot of things that I am grateful for,” Zendaya stated in a recent cover interview with InStyle. “As an actor, I admire that he genuinely enjoys playing Spider-Man. You always assume the persona of a superhero, which puts a lot of pressure on you. You are Spider-Man to the young child who happens to walk by. He handled that very beautifully, in my opinion.

The actress continued, “And seeing him at work, even though he’s not a Virgo, he is a perfectionist.”

She went on, recalling her time spent filming Spider-Man: Far From Home with Holland in 2019, in which she portrayed the dashing lady Mary Jane. She said, “Our director allowed me to come in every day [of the filming]. And it was admirable to witness how deeply he values doing his task well. It was tiresome to watch him do a combat scene all day. He would perform an action, return to the monitors, see it, and remark, “I can do that better.” I would say to him, “Dude, you got it.” But I genuinely like that he wants us to be flawless.

What about her connection to Holland? All Zendaya said was, “It’s been a fun time.”

“Extremely charming,” she remarked. “[He] can put anyone at ease and have a nice conversation and laugh.” A nice conversation—I sound very British.

On the set of Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2017, the couple first got together. They became good friends, and although there were early rumors of a romantic relationship, Zendaya briefly dated Jacob Elordi, her co-star in Euphoria, in 2019. September 2020 saw their breakup.