In her latest role, Zendaya finds herself in the middle of a complicated love triangle that has audiences talking.
And the Golden Globe winner, 27, has now said her Challengers co-stars Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist took all the pressure off filming the three-way kiss scene.
The actress said she got ‘lucky’ working with Josh and Mike because they ‘made it easy’ for her and they were ‘kind’.
Zendaya told The Sun: ‘How do you build the chemistry? Well, I think I got lucky that they’re both just lovely guys. They were kind and generous with their work and their time, so that made it easy.’
In Challengers, Zendaya plays Tashi, a retired tennis player who coached her husband Art (Mike Faist) to grand slam status after an injury took her out of the sport.
In her latest role, Zendaya finds herself in the middle of a complicated love triangle that has audiences talking
And the Golden Globe winner, 27, says her Challengers co-stars Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist took all the pressure off filming the three-way kiss scene
After convincing him to play a challenger event, Art ends up across the net from Patrick (Josh O’Connor), his childhood friend and Tashi’s ex.
The kiss scene takes place toward the beginning of the movie, when the trio are high schoolers staying at a hotel during a match.
Spiderman star Zendaya went onto reveal that the trio connected during hours of rehearsals and ‘physically challenging’ tennis lessons.
She explained: ‘We had a tremendous amount of tennis training, we worked out beside each other. We did tennis training and we had rehearsal time, which is a privilege — you know, to be able to have that time to talk about the characters and really dig into it. And that just created more of a safety net.’
Challengers was released on Friday and Zendaya admitted the film is an ’emotional rollercoaster’ and that viewers would be ‘open minded’ while watching.
The Euphoria star said her character is ‘complex, messy and confusing’ but insisted that was what made portraying her so much fun.
She added: ‘That was the challenge. I didn’t just want her to be one dimensional or one faceted. I wanted to explore all the sides of this very, very complicated woman and all the nuance that comes along with her. It was so fun, such a dream.’
The former Disney star went onto admit that she is personally ‘super controlling and self-critical’ on herself and acting is her escape and very ‘therapeutic’.
The actress said she got ‘lucky’ working with Josh and Mike because they ‘made it easy’ for her and they were ‘kind’
Zendaya said: ‘I got lucky that they’re both just lovely guys. They were kind and generous with their work and their time, so that made it easy’
In Challengers, Zendaya plays Tashi, a retired tennis player who coached her husband Art (Mike Faist) to grand slam status after an injury took her out of the sport
After convincing him to play a challenger event, Art ends up across the net from Patrick (Josh O’Connor), his childhood friend and Tashi’s ex
Although Challengers is already being lauded for its steamy scenes, Zendaya previously revealed there is no sex in the movie.
She told People: ‘We keep saying tennis is the sex in the movie, and I think tennis holds a metaphor for a lot of things: desires, passion, pain, anger, frustration.
‘I think they all use tennis as this way of communicating with each other when they just don’t have the words.’
Zendaya also told The Mirror that the ‘intimate scenes were so good, I loved it,’ adding of her co-stars: ‘I felt very lucky to be partnered with those guys.’
The Disney Channel alum said seeing her family’s reactions to those scenes at the premiere ‘was honestly my favorite part’ as she appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
‘Well, they know it’s a R-rated movie,’ she said. ‘I say, you know, walking into this, if you can’t handle the heat, get out of the kitchen. I forewarned them’.
Challengers is now playing in theaters.
Challengers was released on Friday and Zendaya admitted the film is an ’emotional rollercoaster’ and that viewers would be ‘open minded’ while watching
The Euphoria star said her character is ‘complex, messy and confusing’ but insisted that was what made portraying her so much fun
