Zendaya Calls ‘Challengers’ a ‘Complicated, Beautiful Mess’

Tennis may serve as a gripping backdrop for the new Luca Guadagnino-directed film, but its star says it’s more than a sports movie.

Zendaya as Tashi Duncan. / Niko Tavernise/Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures

Hitting a tennis ball against a wall tends to get old in roughly the time it will take to read this sentence. Canadian doubles, or two-against-one, is the last refuge of the desperate, a configuration that leaves no player fully satisfied. Tennis has doubles; not throuples. This is a sport of even numbers, of symmetry. It has a particular aversion to the number three.

This geometry is thrown into sharp—and often uncomfortable—relief in the film Challengers, which opened on Friday.

This is a … well … let’s stop here for definitional discussion. The movie features plenty of tennis and competition but is way too complex (and sexual) to be considered a traditional “sports film” on the order of, say Hoosiers or even Bull Durham. It’s mordantly funny at times; but too dark (and sexual) for the designation of comedy. It can’t be considered a thriller, so long as it (spoiler) has a lame, cop-out of an ending—one of the film’s few flagrant unforced errors.

But not unlike a tennis match—and roughly the same duration—Challengers is filled with tension, clean winners and unpredictable plot twists. Directed by Luca Guadagnino of Call Me By Your Name, it uses clever chronology and structure to tell the triangulated story of Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) and Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor). In all combinations and permutations, they kind of love each other and kind of hate each other. Depends on when you’re doing the status update.

It’s also a proverbial big swing for Zendaya. She’s 27 now, no longer “the girl from Euphoria.” In this role, arguably her first truly leading one, she makes a choice, playing a prodigy-turned-coach … of her husband. (Imagine if Lady Macbeth had once played the Wimbledon juniors.) She bubbles with self-confidence in this role, and it says a great deal about her self-regard (in the best way possible) as an actor that she would take a chance with a complicated role like this.

A word to parents considering taking their preadolescent son or daughter to see Zendaya in the sugary new tennis film: don’t. We mentioned the sex, yes? We also mentioned the bailout ending, right? 

But, otherwise, there is plenty to recommend. Not least the tennis. If the three principals aren’t confused for pros based on their strokes, they nail their respective roles—especially the tennis nuances. The walk. The talk. The body language. The sport’s sadistic trait of twinning happiness with results. We also get the niceties of junior tennis, challenger-level tennis and even college tennis. (As Laura Robson was first to note, there’s even a nod to the Applebee’s scene at the Cincinnati event.)

Ahead of the release, flanked (foreshadowingly!) by her two male castmates, Zendaya spoke with Sports Illustrated. Some outtakes, edited lightly for brevity and clarity …

Mike Faist, Zendaya and Josh O'Connor in 'Challengers'. / Niko Tavernise/Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures

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Sports Illustrated: How are we defining this movie? This is not your conventional sports movie …

Zendaya: The truth is, there is no answer to that question, which I think is what drew all of us to it. I think it's not quite a tennis film. It's not quite a sports film.

But it has tennis in it. I wouldn't say a romantic comedy, although there is romance and it's funny. I wouldn't say that it's entirely a drama, but there are dramatic moments. So I think that's the beauty of it —it really can't be defined or categorized as any one thing. Just as I think the characters can't be defined or categorized. It's all just a complicated, beautiful mess.

SI: What sort of tennis background/knowledge/preconceived notions did you bring to this? 

Zendaya: I did not have much of a tennis background. I mean, I joke: when I was little, I did like tennis camp with my grandma, when I was like seven. Retained nothing from that because I was just a kid, and we didn't really learn much.

But I really am grateful to this film for introducing me to the world of tennis. It is so special. I think honestly getting to understand the psychology of it as well—I think it's an incredibly lonely sport—and I can't imagine the pressure and the demand to always be at the top.

Mike [Faist] brought this up the other day. He was speaking about how in our industry, there is no literal ranking. To think that you're like on a number system of how good you are is, is terrifying, you know? I can't imagine that kind of physical demand and mental demand. I have grown to absolutely adore the sport and really respect the game and those who play it, a newfound respect and understanding for it. Once you pick up a racket and you're like, Oh, I can do that. And then you get out there and you can't, I'm telling you right now: You. Cannot. When that ball is coming a hundred and something miles at your face, it's not happening. I now think that tennis is one of my favorite sports to watch. 

SI: When you see this sport up close in person, what are you appreciating, picking up on, noticing that you may have been lost on you before you did this film? 

Josh O’Connor: I went to Wimbledon [in 2022] … I saw [Rafael] Nadal win. And I really felt the loneliness, which we kind of like explored when we were making the film. We were on Centre Court and looking down on Rafa, and he just looks so small and just so isolated. And Wimbledon particularly because it's so quiet.

SI: You guys each get to play doubles with one tennis player. Who are you picking? 

Zendaya: Serena. Serena. Yeah, because then I could just, I'd be like, ‘You got it, sis, I'm with you.’

Mike Faist: I think all of us would end up being, like, the ball people, you know what I mean? … I would choose Nadal because he seems like he's really funny. 

JO: Actually [Roger] Federer's pretty funny too. I really love [Nick] Kyrgios. I'd love to see Kyrgios causing havoc. I'd love to be on the court while he's doing that. 

Zendaya: Stressful. 

JO: Yeah, I would be like, ‘Oh, he doesn't mean it … that's a joke he does.’

SI: You mentioned how solitary tennis is. Is it strange: film is so collaborative and yet you're playing roles that are so solitary?

Zendaya: Maybe to go against that, I think these characters, their main problem is they can't be by themselves. They can't be alone. Everything in their existence is dependent upon someone else's existence. Like, something else someone has that they don't have. My character can't play tennis. So now, it's all on someone else and they’re pushing their passion on someone else, wanting something out of life that you can't have on your own.

And so, if anything, I think it's incredibly codependent. And, you know, tennis, while isolating is also—you can see when two incredible people who are great at what they do are just in a zone together, right? When you see a beautiful rally it’s like you can't play tennis by yourself. There has to be somebody else on the other side giving you that back. And, um. I think in many ways, that's what [the cast] is constantly doing with each other. Sometimes it's aggravating and frustrating and there's anger on the other side. And then sometimes there's just pure joy and appreciation.