Zendaya's racy Challengers three

Release time：2024-05-21 16:41:32 Source：International Identities news portal

In her latest role, Zendaya finds herself in the middle of a complicated love triangle that has audiences talking.

As the Golden Globe winner, 27, and her Challengers co-stars  Josh O'Connor and Mike Faist promoted the film, director Luca Guadagnino revealed a pivotal three-way kiss scene was not in screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes' original script.

'I don't think that was in the script at the beginning. Not at all,' he told Entertainment Weekly ahead of Friday's premiere.

'We discussed at length with Justin the concept that the triangle needs to flesh out the possibility that all the corners touch — that if you're jealous of someone, you're not jealous of your partner, you're jealous also not to be picked by the rival.'

Guadagnino explained, 'You want to be the object of the affection of the rival, so you're jealous of not being part of it as much as you are jealous of your partner being chosen.'

Challengers director Luca Guadagnino revealed a pivotal three-way kiss scene was not in screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes' original script

'I don't think that was in the script at the beginning. Not at all,' he said of the scene between Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O'Connor

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.

The kiss scene takes place toward the beginning of the movie, when the trio are high schoolers staying at a hotel during a match.

While collaborating with Kuritzkes on the script, Guadagnino said he wanted to build upon the 'usefulness and fun' of the scene.

'The idea [is] that Tashi can see what they don't want to see or they cannot see, which is this incredible attraction that they have not only for her but also for one another,' he explained.

'And so Justin made the very funny scene, wrote beautiful dialogue, and I thought that the mundanity of this hotel room in Queens was quite touching in portraying youth.'

Guadagnino continued, 'For me, it was all about staying there, staying with them, staying with the jokes, staying with the moment of embarrassment, followed by the moment of excitement, and eventually to show the geometry the movie sets up in that moment, the power that she had over them.'

Faist, 32, confirmed that 'the script did change,' noting: 'The script that I think we all initially read before actually signing on and agreeing to the project is different than once we agreed to do it.'

Zendaya added, 'Yeah, there were some drafts... Luca and Justin worked on the script in Italy before we even all got together. 

In Challengers, Zendaya plays Tashi, a retired tennis player who coached her husband Art (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

'I believe [Kuritzkes] hadn't really done a bunch of drafts of the original thing... and while it was absolutely brilliant, I know that Luca wanted to infuse his own things into it, and so that collaboration started quite early,' she added.

Although Challengers is already being lauded for its steamy scenes, Zendaya previously revealed there is no sex in the movie.

'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,' she told People.

'I think they all use tennis as this way of communicating with each other when they just don’t have the words,' added Zendaya.

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. 

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