Featured Image Credit: Mike Coppola/Getty Images for The Gotham Film & Media Institute/MGM
Topics: Zendaya, Film and TV, Celebrity
Gerrard Kaonga
Topics: Zendaya, Film and TV, Celebrity
Challengers left a lot of people hot underneath the collar and Zendaya has explained how she approached one of the movie's steamiest scenes.
Zendaya starred in the lead role of Tashi Duncan in the 2024 film; a young tennis prodigy who finds herself in the midst of a very intense love triangle with two of her fellow players.
She was joined by O'Connor and Mike Faist, who play Patrick Zweig and Art Donaldson respectively, and it's clear that the trio work hard and play harder.
One of the most talked about moments from Challengers was a scene that involved a three-way kiss.
While you might have thought the scene was pretty intimate, it seems Zendaya has different views.
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In fact, the actor said there were quite a few people involved in the making of it.
Speaking to Variety with Nicole Kidman, the pair explained that when shooting intimate scenes, there are quite a lot of things at play.
They also noted the balancing act of flowing into the scene and sticking firmly to the ‘plan’.
Kidman said: "You may be sitting in this chair, and then suddenly the scene is on the floor. You can come in with this plan, but the plan is not going to help you, really. Listening and responding, as we do in life, is the best way to get something special."
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Zendaya responded: "You can tell if someone’s thinking about what they’re going to say or what they’re going to do with their hand. I’ve caught myself doing that, when you dissociate mid-take. Or you start thinking, 'Why did I just do that with my eye? That was a really weird choice.'"
She added: "I got asked a lot about the three-way kiss scene in [Challengers], and I was like, 'Really, it’s a four-, five-, six-, seven-, eight-, nine-way kiss,' because there’s so many people.
"There’s a camera coming at us at a certain time. I know that when I go from Mike [Faist] to Josh [O’Connor], when the camera comes in, I gotta move back. There’s so many things at play."
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Writer Justin Kuritzkes previously told Variety that 'tennis by its nature, is a very erotic sport... It’s very sexy'.
He also explained that director Luca Guadagnino felt it was 'very important that, in any love triangle, all the corners touch'.
"I quickly realized he meant it literally," Kuritzkes added, which is how the film ended up with a steamy scene in which Patrick and Art start out kissing Tashi, but then begin to lock lips with each other.