When Total Film meets Challengers stars Zendaya and The Crown’s Josh O’Connor in London in June 2023 they are good-naturedly trash-talking their third wheel, Mike Faist, who can’t make this chat due to his commitment to West End stage show Brokeback Mountain. «Oh, you heard? Terrible!» Zendaya – or ‘Zee’ as her co-stars call her – jokes with a laugh before talking proudly of her absent colleague’s performance as Jack Twist, which she, her boyfriend Tom Holland and O’Connor had seen the night before. Faist, when we meet a few days later between shows, keeps up the banter and teasing when he laughs about O’Connor’s preparation (or lack thereof) for playing a champion tennis player.
This article first appeared in Total Film issue 341. Subscribe here to make sure you never miss an issue!
The dynamic between the three is very much in keeping with the chemistry and vibe at the heart of Luca Guadagnino’s follow-up to cannibal romance Bones and All, a switch in direction that he describes as «a fairly fizzy, sexy movie about the world of tennis». Written by playwright turned screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes, Challengers charts the relationship between best-friend players Patrick (O’Connor) and Art (Faist) as they meet tennis prodigy Tashi (Zendaya) in their training teens and interchange as her boyfriend/friend. Years later, when Art is a top seed in a crisis and Tashi now his wife and coach, the duo run into Patrick again, who’s struggling to make ends meet but still has fire in his game – in every way. As Art and Patrick compete in a lowranking challengers match (Art to flex, Patrick to win cash), old resentments and attractions come into play…
Zendaya produces as well as leads on the project – all the push-pull of the men’s achievements, psychological warfare and heartbreak revolves around her queenly Tashi who witheringly comments that she is ‘taking such good care of my little white boys’ – and felt that the script spoke to her immediately after Spider-Man producer Amy Pascal brought it to her. «It felt like the right fit,» she says, snuggling in her Challengers-logoed sweater (‘from the wrap [party]’). «Spider-Man was a big thing for us, and it’s been hugely a part of my life. But it was very different in the sense that I was definitely just an actor in that, and in that world. I think her bringing this to me in the capacity of being collaborative was very exciting. It was special to start putting something together. The first person, and only person, that we really talked to was Luca, because I was so excited by the fact that he felt what I felt about what I had read, and wanted to have a conversation with me about it. I felt very honoured in that way. He’d already read it, and was like, ‘I know what kind of movie I want to make.’ And then when we talked about it, and those movies aligned – the movie I saw in my head, and the movie he saw in his head – and kind of connected in this crazy way, I just knew that this felt like the right fit.»
With Tashi on centre court, Zendaya and Guadagnino set about casting her ‘little white boys’ – Art, a perfectionist and pragmatist; Patrick, a firebrand and disrupter. Guadagnino legendarily does not believe in chemistry reads, preferring to match talent by intuition, and he and his star/producer landed on the same Brit playing a prince for their chaotic tennis brat. «When I first read the script, I was shooting Spider-Man: No Way Home and I watched The Crown,» Zendaya recalls. «I was like, ‘Yo, this guy is amazing! Josh O’Connor. He would be perfect for this.’ Then when I talked to Luca, without having said anything, he was like, ‘So I’m thinking of Josh O’Connor.’ I was like, ‘OK! That was in my head, too!’ And then his magical mind found Mike as well, and put this beautiful trio together. He really has an understanding of casting in a way that I think is really special.»
O’Connor agrees. «He’s told me he’s not interested in the chemistry and stuff like that. But I think that’s only because he has a very good understanding of what will work. I remember the first day of rehearsals, and I was sitting watching Zee and Mike doing a scene in this space, and it was just immediately apparent. I was like: ‘It’s perfect casting.’ And the three of us, I think, were just perfect in that sense, and also very open actors. Zee and Mike were always offering stuff up, and always pushing each other, and me. We were all kind of helping ourselves along that way.»
Winning the set
When the trailer for the film was released, it set the internet aflame with the palpable sexual ferocity between Zendaya and both co-stars, but also between the two men. Art and Patrick have a close friendship that dances around the edges of attraction, and that informs their battle on the courts and in Tashi’s affections. That frisson, which can’t be manufactured, was found in a pre-shoot rehearsal period in Boston in the spring of 2022, where the threesome honed their forehand and foreplay.
«We kind of went to summer camp,» Zendaya smiles. «It was an acting/tennis summer camp. You wake up really early. Everybody’s like, ‘OK, let’s stretch together.’ We stretch, we play PE games…»
O’Connor interjects: «Eat eggs, eat chicken and broccoli…»
«Broccoli! And work out, and play tennis, rehearse all day. It was a dream in that respect, you get paid to do what you would want to do anyway.»
«That’s kind of what we do as actors,» Faist nods. «You just kind of learn new skills with everything, and each time it just feels like, ‘OK, what kind of camp is this going to be?’ And the three of us, really, we had a lot of fun training together and working together. It was definitely a memorable summer.»
«I love rehearsal space,» Zendaya enthuses of the process, «because it’s just a time to throw things out there, and see if anything sticks. So by the time you’re on set, you feel free. You’ve had the conversations and the fear, and you’re not losing time. You can just play.»
That play also included movie nights watching Ratatouille («Some light-heartedness to balance some of the talk and the energy of these characters,» Zendaya chuckles) and time building the sexual power play and dynamics at work within the trio. «Josh and I are just kind of, genuinely, these walking goofballs, who just like acting,» Faist smiles. «I think Josh and I came out of this with a very similar mentality. And we just spent so much time together on this, all the time.» Two goofballs trying to woo a goddess could edge into bawdy comedy territory and though Challengers does offer humour, it delivers simmering sex scenes, as audiences might expect from Guadagnino’s sensuous output.
«Look, it’s a very vulnerable thing what we do, already, to begin with,» Faist shrugs of ensuring the physicality of the characters felt as authentic as the tennis. ‘And then to add on these funny layers – you know, it can be so uncomfortable. So it was really important that we were all very honest and comfortable with each other, and made sure that we were creating a safe enough environment to be willing to play and do these things. It’s such a weird thing, because you have a whole crew of people standing over there, on the other side. There’s a camera pointing at you, and then they’re like, ‘OK, do this awkward thing.’
«And you’re like, ‘OK, let’s do this awkward thing, and try to come across as believable.’ So you’re doing it, and all of a sudden, they say ‘cut’, and you give each other fist bumps or something. Something goofy to kind of break the tension of it all. I’m always like, ‘All right, who am I making out with today?'»
For Zendaya, the very real bond the trio built before cameras rolled is what makes the characters so believable for audiences. «Just being committed to the work, and holding space for each other, and being patient with each other, and just being really helpful, and just being in those rooms, and just talking shit through – I think it ultimately led to being in a space where we could just be like, ‘All right, let’s play.’ I felt like I was, you know, filling the role of a leader, but also being led in many ways by their performances, and how they show up to work every day.»
That process is a form of magic, says Faist – sometimes the talent put in a room together just gels and that gets captured on camera. «At the end of the day, you have a bunch of alchemists who are extremely passionate, who have no idea how to make the potion work. But for some reason, they’re just going to try…»
Advantage
Emotional dynamics sorted, the trifecta also had to nail looking like top seeds who knew their way around the professional tour. Having been on the project from that start, Zendaya trained with the film’s tennis consultant, former pro and Andre Agassi coach Brad Gilbert, and further refined her court style in the six-week rehearsal period. She became so convincing a grand slammer that Guadagnino gushed about her skills at the Academy Museum Gala in October 2022: «We edited the movie and we almost actually don’t use any of her double. She’s so good.»
O’Connor and Faist had less time, coming later to the project and directly off other sets. Their approaches mirrored their characters according to the actors. Faist, who admits his experience of tennis was playing one season in high school, was filming Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders in Ohio immediately before arriving in Boston and was anxious about training enough to convince as a pro. «Whenever I work, I just kind of obsess about things. I get tunnel vision; I’m a bit of a perfectionist. So when I found out that I got this I was very nervous about the whole thing because my character was probably a top-three tennis player in the world, and had been for some time.» Adding to his neurosis was Brad Gilbert’s insistence Faist achieve a powerful one-handed backhand. «I was in Ohio, and I got in touch with some professionals there through Brad, and, for six weeks, trained every day for about four hours. When we got to Boston, I was so nervous, because I knew Zee had been training and I just assumed Josh had been, too. And when I get there Josh is holding the racquet, and questioning, ‘How do you hold this?’ because he had been up on a hill in Italy shooting a movie for the past six weeks [La Chimera]. Once that happened, I kind of calmed my nerves, and thought, ‘This is going to be OK. I’m not, at least, Josh!'»
O’Connor is Patrick-esque sanguine about his lack of tennis know-how, confessing he based his off-court mind games and meltdowns on Medvedev and Kyrgios. «It was either acting or tennis for me…» he jokes. «No, I’m rubbish, and I had never played any tennis. Zee was pretty fast in getting the moves down and Mike, though we joke, was actually unbelievably good…»
«But you’re supposed to have a certain style of play,» Zendaya assures. «Like, there’s technique, but then also it has to be a little fucked-up, too.»
O’Connor laughs. «That worked in my favour because if anyone was like, ‘Hey, Josh, it’s not like that’ – I was like, ‘I know, but it’s a character choice. That’s how he holds it!'»
Playing such competitive sportspeople can’t be too dissimilar to the rigours of acting, Total Film suggests, the commitment required to make that elusive top-seeded player spot and the rivalry in the audition room. «It feels like what we do is more of a team sport,» Zendaya disagrees. «You have so many departments and so many people creating this one thing. I don’t ever look at it like, ‘I’m an actor, you’re an actor. We’re on separate sides of the thing.’ I try not to be in comparison or competition with anyone, except for Zendaya yesterday.»
For O’Connor, acting is too multi-discipline to be as competitive as grand-slam rivals. «It’s kind of impossible to be competitive; it would be like a painter being in competition with a sculptor. What Zee offers as an actor is so completely different to what Mike offers, to what I offer. With tennis, there are small margins, and those players are all so good, and it’s down to psychological competition.»
Challengers is out in theaters on April 26. This article first appeared in issue 341 of Total Film. You can subscribe to Total Film here.
For more on Challengers, read our Big Screen Spotlight feature on why it doesn’t need sex scenes to make it the sexiest film of the year.
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