Featured Image Credit: Warner Bros
Topics: TV And Film, Zendaya, Sex and Relationships
Jess Hardiman
You’ll have no doubt seen lots of buzz about Zendaya’s steamy new movie, which is just DAYS away from release.
Watch the trailer below:
Sure, a film about a bunch of tennis pros might not exactly seem like the raciest of concepts, but in the hands of Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino, you can expect a fair amount of sexiness.
In Challengers, we follow former tennis prodigy Tashi (Zendaya), who becomes in a complicated love triangle with fellow tennis pros - and best friends - Art (Mike Faist) and Patrick (Josh O’Connor).
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After Tashi’s career ends prematurely when she is injured, she coaches husband Patrick to become one of the best players in the world, at one point facing off against Art... who also happens to be Tashi’s ex.
Sounds messy, doesn’t it?
Zendaya admitted she found the creative process behind the film ‘really exciting’, having ‘loved’ filming the sex scenes.
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Speaking to the Mirror about her role, the actor said she and her co-stars felt ‘lucky’ to work with Guadagnino, who urged them to put forward their own ideas.
"Tashi is extremely driven,” she said of her character.
“She's a go-getter and she is totally ruthless.
"The intimate scenes were so good I loved it. I felt very lucky to be partnered with those guys."
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Zendaya continued: "And whatever the moment, it always felt like they always had my back and I had theirs.
"We were so lucky to have a director in Luca Guadagnino who really encouraged us all to collaborate and to bring our own ideas.
"It was a really exciting creative process."
Zendaya said she had ‘great difficulty’ meeting the ‘physical challenges’ of the world, admitting she’s not ‘one of those people who love to work out’.
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However, given that Tashi is supposed to be an elite athlete, there was ‘no getting around it’.
"Thankfully, I had an amazing group of people who helped and I learned a lot about air tennis especially and how to look like I know what I'm doing," she said.
"We trained for something like six weeks, which was pretty tough.
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"Hopefully, we did a good job and people won't be too upset. But I'm not about to give up the day job, that's for sure!"
She added that, while there’s certainly athletic elements she had to take into account, the film is by no means just a sports drama.
"It's a complicated, sexy and interesting character piece,” the Dune star said.
“When I read the script, I loved it.”
Zendaya said movie film is ‘fascinating’ as viewers with ‘find themselves empathising with a different character’.
“Everyone has their own idea of who the bad guy is," she explained.
Challengers hits UK cinemas on 26 April.