Zendaya & Austin Butler First Met at a Teen Vogue Photoshoot: See Photos

Before Zendaya and Austin Butler shared the screen as costars in Dune: Part Two, they were just two scrappy young actors working toward their big break, posing together for Teen Vogue in 2012. That’s right: we sit at the center of Butler and Z’s origin story.

During a recent appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Butler revealed that he and his über-fashionable costar didn’t first meet on the desert set of their upcoming sci-fi sequel, but rather on the set of Teen Vogue’s annual Young Hollywood shoot. Butler noted that it was actually Zendaya who pointed out the connection.

“She reminded me of it the other day, I had completely forgotten,” Butler reminisced. “We did this Teen Vogue thing together as kids.” The Teen Vogue Young Hollywood shoot that year was themed and titled “Cirque Du Chic,” and featured 13 of 2012’s hottest young actors in high fashion circus-inspired looks, photographed by Boo George. Yes, we dug up the photos. Yes, they are very Degrassi season 10 “Shark in the Water” promo-coded.

Fallon also resurfaced behind-the-scenes clips of Butler and Zendaya on set of the shoot, answering questions about their careers. They’re so young! So fresh-faced! So hopeful! At one point, Butler manifests that he’d like to someday be “the first American James Bond.”

“I like being busy,” Zendaya says in her interview, a seemingly timeless statement for the actress, that could apply to her work schedule in 2012 or 2024. At the time, Zendaya was 16 years old and working on Shake It Up.

She would, of course, go on to make history as the youngest two-time Outstanding Lead Actress Emmy winner, as well as the first Black woman to win the category twice. Butler, for his part, was 21 during the shoot and dating his then-girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens, as well as getting ready to star in the CW’s The Carrie Diaries. Flash forward to 2024 and Butler and Z are both sitting on top of the world, or, I guess Arrakis. Never forget where you came from, Austin and Z.

Teen Vogue Young Hollywood lore gets stronger and stronger as the years go by — Timothée Chalamet and Keke Palmer went viral for their interaction at the 2021 Met Gala, during which Timmy interrupts his own thought to ask Palmer on the carpet: “You know we met when we were 17, right?” Want to guess where they met? Ding ding ding, Teen Vogue’s Young Hollywood 2014 cover shoot, photographed by Josh Olins.