Josh O’Connor Addresses Sexuality of His & Mike Faist’s ‘Challengers’ Characters, Zendaya Talks About the Shift in Her Career

Zendaya on why Challengers is more than a tennis movie:

“It’s a movie, and it’s tennis, but it’s not a tennis movie. It’s much deeper. Tennis is just a metaphor for a lot of bigger sh-t. For power. For codependency. They’re using tennis as their device to get these things out of their system. It’s the only way they know how to communicate.”

Josh O’Connor on training in the gym with Zendaya and Mike Faist:

“I find gyms incredibly tedious. I get bored very quickly. I always catch myself in the mirror, and I’m like ‘You look so pathetic. You look rubbish holding your weights. And out of your depth.’ So I just never really lasted…There’s a piece of equipment that measures how strong your abdominals are. And Zendaya had the best abs of the three of us by a long way. I remember me and Mike laughing, but we were also furious and desperately trying to improve our strength.”

Zendaya on Tashi’s experience as a Black woman in the tennis world:

“It’s very clear to her that she’s coming into a place of privilege and access that she clearly didn’t grow up with, so she enjoys f-cking with them about it. All of her background is riding on her shoulders. It’s clear that she’s had to fight her way in, and is dealing with it on the daily, what it means to be a Black girl in that space. Tennis means more to her than it does to them; it’s not just something she decided to do because ‘I had the luxury of getting tennis lessons as a kid.’ This is it for her. This is what’s going to take care of herself and her family and the future. There’s so much riding on it.”

Posted To:Challengers Josh O'Connor Mike Faist Slideshow Zendaya