That is especially because of the multilateral chemistry between Zendaya, O’Connor and Faist – all actors in their late 20s or early 30s, all very capable of smouldering when called upon.
What’s special is that the three of us got to lead the movie. That is cool. An opportunity to do something like that is so rare.
Tashi was only relegated to the sidelines because of a career-ending knee injury – though it did little to sap her ambition. When Art, whose passion for tennis is fading, is matched in New Rochelle against an old friend, Patrick (O’Connor, star of Alice Rohrwacher’s recent La Chimera), their complicated past is, deliciously, resurrected.
Zendaya gravitated to the project not because it seemed a natural fit for her, but because it was not.
“Because it sounded like a challenge. Because it is so different from me,” Zendaya says in an interview alongside her co-stars. “Sometimes when you’re a little afraid to tackle something like that you, you’re like, ‘Ooh, maybe I should do it.’ I don’t want to walk into something and be like, ‘I got this. This is going to be easy.’”
“What’s special is that the three of us got to lead the movie. That is cool,” says O’Connor. “An opportunity to do something like that is so rare.”
Guadagnino, known for his organic way of working, compares the weeks he and the three stars spent together preparing to “kids on the beach creating castles of sand”.
Although Faist has some ability, the rest were hopeless at tennis. Guadagnino had not picked up a racquet in his life before stepping onto the set in Challengers. Famed tennis coach Brad Gilbert was brought in to help.
But Challengers is not really about tennis; that is just the arena where attraction and emotion in the film ultimately spills out. When it is pointed out to Guadagnino that the tennis scenes are essentially his movie’s sex scenes, he responds, “Thank you.”
Not nude, just looks like it: the naked dress trend from its roots to today
Not nude, just looks like it: the naked dress trend from its roots to today
Challengers signals a shift into more mature screen roles for the 27-year-old who, from a young age as a Disney television star, had the responsibly of fame and providing for her family on her shoulders.
“Something I deal with personally is the idea of what I should want, or what people want for me,” Zendaya says. “I empathise with that in Tashi but also in Art because he’s playing for two people. He’s not just selfishly playing for his own joy any more, he’s playing for someone else.”
“He is front-footed, he’s overly confident – all these qualities that I’ve always admired and always wanted that I’ve never quite been able to have. Just to play it and be in his shoes for a few months was bliss,” says O’Connor. “That is what I’ll hold on to with Patrick.
“I really like Patrick. I know he’s problematic but I really like him. I find him hilarious and charming and he knows himself. And those are all qualities that I don’t necessarily have but I admire in him.”
The connections and challenges each star brought to Challengers added up to a remarkably intimate drama and a potentially career-shifting experience. Even Guadagnino, who generally prefers editing to shooting, found his time on hard court with Zendaya, O’Connor and Faist to be enthralling.
“It was joyous and it was nice and it was energetic,” says Guadagnino. “It was a good company.”